The Water Resources Management Board (WRMO), a newly-formed agency at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) seeks to repurpose part of the P276-billion budget intended for the flood control program of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
WRMO head and DENR undersecretary for Environmental Science Carlos David said the proposal will help the country sustain the supply of clean and potable water which is finite and dwindling.
“We’ve been talking to NIA (National Irrigation Authority) and the DPWH if we can, perhaps, repurpose some of the (flood control) projects so they can longer be dikes alone but actually impounding projects, small hydro dams and reservoirs for water supply of communities and irrigation,” he said at the Water for Life forum organized by Stratbase ADR Monday.
He mentioned projects such the P744 million San Cristobal River in Calamba, Laguna, can be repurposed into building many small water impounding systems. This year, one side of the river has been fitted with dikes and the other side by next year. From the same budget, the government can initiate the rehabilitation of a small dam upstream of the river that can provide irrigation to nearby towns, he said.
Another is the Imus River allotted with P348 million, similarly for building dikes, but can as well be repurposed to water impounding systems for the growing population of near river inhabitants, as well as the P353 million Pagsanjan River project.
He added that the government budget for water supply projects alone is P14 billion for 2023. Each water project may cost P10 million to 15 million and the WRMO, he said, is willing to work with concerned agencies to ensure that the projects “actually become water projects.”
Rep. Wilbert T. Lee of AGRI party-list group on Monday meanwhile urged the government to maximize state educational institutions like the University of the Philippines (UP) in order to produce crops that can survive extreme weather conditions that lead to extended droughts and damaging floods.
Lee made the statement with the country’s farmers facing the threats of the El Niño phenomenon.
In its first El Niño advisory, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) on July 4 announced that “recent PAGASA climate monitoring and analyses indicate that the unusual warming of sea surface temperatures along the equatorial Pacific that was established in March 2023 has further developed into a weak El Niño, which show signs of strengthening in the coming months.”
“To address this urgent issue, our government should consider harnessing the expertise and resources of our state educational institutions and science centers in a concerted effort to advance agricultural genomics research. By doing so, we can work towards developing drought and flood-resilient strains of rice that will safeguard our food security and mitigate the adverse effects of climatic uncertainties,” said Lee.
The lawmaker pointed out that recent UP initiatives should be maximized by government to benefit Filipino farmers constantly threatened by droughts and typhoons. One of these is a recent $14.95 million agricultural genomics agreement between the UP and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to conduct the project, “Capacity-Building for Higher Education and the Establishment of Agricultural Genomics Research Center at the University of the Philippines Los Baños.” With Maricel V. Cruz