DAVAO CITY—Water, or the scarcity of it, has long been predicted to be the source of a major crisis in the future. That crisis appears to be nearing now, even for countries with pronounced dry and wet seasons all year round.
Images of women on long hikes in the desert to fetch water have been poster images of famine-hit continents like Africa, but in countries like the Philippines, threats to sources of potable water are also increasingly reported by residents as land subsidence and mysterious sink holes appear, many of them ascribed to dried up underground water aquifers.
Intrusion of salt water into sources of fresh and potable water is also becoming commonplace in urban areas along the coasts, and points to the drying up of fresh water sources, allowing sea water to fill in the gap.
Mindanao is not spared of the threat, due to unbridled incursions in the forests despite local government prohibition and protection laws. The need for stable sources of water is much pronounced on this southern Philippine island because of the large agricultural need for it.
Database
THE Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) is now moving to put in place a database operation to track and monitor water and weather patterns. The move is anchored on stabilizing this prime agriculture need to keep production going, aside from managing disasters due to erratic and unpredictable climatic changes.
The agency, the government’s socioeconomic planning unit for Mindanao, will be initiating anew an upland production program for the Filipinos’ main food staple, rice, for wider-scale production to tap hilly areas and untilled slopes.
Upland rice production was done two decades ago with support from Europe, with promising results, but only in selected areas.
The catch is how to ensure a stable water source to irrigate these areas.
The idea of a Mindanao Weather and Water Database and Monitoring System (MinDA
WWDMS) came about after the first lecture on “The Climate Crisis in the World, Southeast Asia and the Philippines” delivered by Dr. Amir Givati, chief scientific officer at Asgard Systems, the MinDA said.
Dr. Givati reiterated the frequently cited apocalyptic warnings of water crises, stressing that the unpredictability of the weather “in these times [should] emphasize [to] nations [the need to] possess accurate data on water and weather, to be more prepared to face the challenges of climate change.”
Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol, chief of the MinDA, said the agency was initiating the Upland Hybrid Rice Farm Technology and wanted to access Israeli water technology after Tel Aviv earlier lent its expertise through an online course in water conservation and management to local policy makers in Mindanao.
He said he wanted local chief executives, or their designated focus persons, to be involved in the creation of the MinDAWWDMS.
Israel model
Piñol said Israel’s arid weather might provide a good insight into water conservation, which has helped sustain its agricultural production despite harsh arid and desert conditions.
He noted that Israel has a land area of only 2.1 million hectares, “which is just about the size of the provinces of Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur, with only four or five major rivers and rainfall of only 365 millimeters, compared to the Philippines, which has hundreds of rivers and rainfall of up to 4,000 millimeters.”
“Yet, Israel exports agricultural products while our country relies heavily on imports,” Piñol pointed out.
Israel’s secret? Its leaders point to their advanced technology in managing, conserving and recycling their water resources. The country’s technology-based strategies on sustainable agricultural production led to a successful program on creating wider economic opportunities for its people.
According to Israel’s information provided to MinDA, its water strategy comprises the following:
1. Water recycling. Eight percent of water in Israel is recycled. Wastewater is filtered and reused in water plants, such as in Shafdan wastewater treatment plant in Rishon LeZion;
2. Drip irrigation. A technology to water agricultural crops by watering the roots of the plants and avoid evaporation
3. Desalination. Converts seawater to drinking water through establishing desalination plants
4. River rehabilitation. Cleaning the river with physical and chemical elements by filtering contamination
5. Harvesting water from the air.
While Davao City has its own rainwater-catching ordinance, requiring new subdivisions and housing projects to install water tanks to store rainwater, many areas in Mindanao have relied mainly on potable water piped in by local water utilities. Rain water, meantime, flows incessantly onto water ways, overflowing river banks, flooding communities, flattening the crops in the farms and ends up unused down to the seas.
MinDA said a participant from South Cotabato in an earlier lecture on water conservation had raised the issue of access to accurate and location-specific weather and water data as one of the problems of her province.
“This gave me an idea on the need for a database and monitoring system for water and weather in Mindanao, which I presented right away to Ambassador Fluss as a possible area of technical cooperation between Israel and MinDA,” Piñol said.
The MinDAWWDMS is expected to provide up-to-date and accurate data on both water resources and weather to guide Mindanao leaders in decision making and support agriculture and fisheries stakeholders.
Israel agreed to impart technical knowledge of its water strategy through an initial five-session weekly online course on “Water Management and Conservation: The Israel Model.”
Israel’s Ambassador-designate to the Philippines, Ilan Fluss, has expressed support for MinDA’s proposal to have the database system in Mindanao to support its agriculture and prepare for disasters.
Fluss, who joined the opening last week of an online session for Mindanao governors, mayors and decision-makers, said he also supported technical cooperation between Israel and MinDA.
Piñol quoted Fluss as saying, technical cooperation between Israel and MinDA “is something which he is very excited to work on.”
Fluss is still in Tel Aviv and has yet to submit his credentials to President Duterte. He takes over the Philippine post from Ambassador Rafael Harpaz who, along with Deputy Chief of Mission Nir Balzam, had earlier worked with MinDA on the conduct of the online course on “Water Conservation and Management” for Mindanao decision-makers, especially governors and mayors.
“Ambassador Fluss said he would work on the technical cooperation agreement as soon as he arrives in Manila and after he has presented his credentials to the President,” Piñol said.
The first session, on August 24, had Uri Shor of the Israel Water Authority presenting “Water Conservation: From Awareness to Action—The Israeli Experience”; and Dr. Lior Asaf, MASHAV Water expert, who presented “Sustainable Water Management for Agriculture.”
The two-hour five-session online short course features Israel’s experts in water conservation and management and is a joint project of the MASHAV Agriculture Training Center based in Tel Aviv.
“Mindanao governors and mayors and other participants who would be able to complete the course will receive certificates of completion and would be invited to visit Israel to actually see the water infrastructure of the leading country in water management,” Piñol said.
History made in Taraka
Meanwhile in Lanao del Sur, Taraka town will make history as the first local government unit in the country to invest in six solar-powered irrigation systems (SPIS) and a solar-powered water system with a filtration facility for its 25,000 population, the MinDA said.
“Today, Taraka stands out as a model for other towns in the country, which had long been dependent on the national government for even the minor projects. Taraka is now a corporate local government unit,” Piñol said.
He said Taraka town accessed a loan of P215 million from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), and implemented a program that included the procurement of road-building equipment and the establishment of six SPIS to irrigate 700 hectares and a modern water system.
All of these projects were placed under a newly organized Economic Enterprise Office that would collect fees for services rendered and pay back the loan.
‘Inspiring story of innovation’
PIÑOL said “the inspiring story of innovation in local governance that would make Taraka a rural development model for the country started on December 6, 2019, when the Mindanao Water Supply Program, which aims to provide water for people in every village in Mindanao, was launched here.”
“I personally designed the program and sought the support of the Department of the Interior and Local Government since MinDA does not have the funds to implement it. It was during the launching when the mayor of Taraka, Nashiba Gandarma Sumagayan, a former professor at the Mindanao State University in Marawi, approached MinDA and asked that Taraka be the first enrollee in the program,” Piñol recalled.
“I jumped off from Kidapawan City leading a six-vehicle convoy en route to the poor town of Taraka, Lanao del Sur, located in the periphery of the 34,000-hectare Lanao del Sur. Taraka is unique in so many ways as it is overlooking Lake Lanao, but its rice farms do not have sufficient water. Most of all, it is situated between the town of Butig, known as the base of the Maute terror group, and the City of Marawi, which in May 2017 was reduced to rubbles as soldiers fought the Maute group,” he said.
Soon began a long, difficult and challenging journey marred by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“With the planning staff of MinDA supporting Taraka, a master plan for development was crafted and a digital database for its residents was established,” Piñol said.
The rest is history unfolding for a poor town seeking economic relief for its poverty-stricken people, which all started with the proper utilization of its primary resource—water.
Images courtesy of Alexey Kornylyev | Dreamstime.com and Mindanao Development Authority
Read full article on BusinessMirror
