When the H20 Supply

Problem Gets TOO BIG

Prepared by Michael M. Alunan and Dave S. Garcia

ATIN’TO Development Services

Dam you must do,Damned if you

don’t

Objectives:1)Highlight the water shortage problem and

importance of water not only for consumption, but for irrigation and agricultural development;

2)Facilitate in weighing the options among the big dam projects for easy decision-making;

3)Stress the multiplier effects of building small water dams as a strategy not only to generate water for consumption and irrigation, but also to create rural jobs, boost agricultural productivity and contribute to overall economic development.

Presentation Outline1) Comparison among Big Water Projects Linked to

Metro Manila (Angat Dam, Laiban, Wawa);2) State of Water Shed and lack of Dams to

Capture high Rainfall and the Impact on Soils; 3) Impact on Agricultural Productivity and Poverty4) Importance of Small Water Impounding Projects

(SWIPs) or small catch basins / water reservoirs; 5) Impact on the Economy

Angat Dam supplies more than 90% of Metro Manila’s water needs, but its elevation as of 4 pm Sunday July 18, was down to its lowest at 157.59 meters. This is way below the 180 meter critical level, and even lower than the dam’s lowest level of 158.15 meters in Sept. 1998, an El Niño year.

Although levels are climbing with the rains setting in, water supply reserves are still not enough to meet rising demand for water from an increasing urban population.

When your project no longer holds water

Angat Dam- multipurpose dam supplies about 95% or 2,400 Million liters a day (MLD) of Metro Manila’s water demand thru the La Mesa Dam. It covers some 28,000 hectares and irrigates about 78,000 hectares of catch basin area for flood control and generates 200MW of hydroelectric power

Expansion is called “Angat Water SupplyOptimization Project” and increases H20 volume by 1,300 Million Liters a Day. Umiray Angat Transbasin is 2nd stage of expansion and involves another 1000 MLD .

Laiban Dam – 1900 MLD capacity dam with an area of 28T hectares , P65B project cost with target completion date by 2017 . It is 70 kms away from La Mesa with 30 kms tunnel.

It will displace 3,500 familiesin 7 barangaysof Tanay & destroy20,000 hectares of forest cover. .

Wawa dam – 26T hectares (same as Laiban) watershed in Montalban is 4 kms away from La Mesa Dam.

Its presentcapacity of 50 MLD can be increased to 900 MLD If Boso2 will be repaired at the same time. Full Production can reach1,500 MLD in 4 years.

Dams Area CapacityMillion Liters DailyMLD

Project Cost

TimeNeeded Impact to

Forest Cover

Families Affected

Distance To La Mesa

Laiban27,000 1,900 P65B 10

years24,000hectares

3,500 70 kmsw/ 30kms tunnel

Wawa 26,000 50 to 1500

Initially P1.5B

6 months to 4 years

Unknown yet

Not Known

4 kms.

Comparison of Big Dam Water Projects

Revival & expansion of the unused Wawa Dam from 50 to 1500 MLD capacity. This can be reinforced further by also tapping the nearby Boso-Boso Dam.

Angat Water Supply Optimization Project & Umiray-Angat Transbasin Project for additional 2300 MLD

Laiban Dam only 1,900 MLD

State of Watershed and its

Impact on Soils and

Agricultural Productivity

Bold bald truth

Of the 15M hectares of original natural forest

lands, the virgin forests left are now less than 700,000 hectares. Tree

plantations cannot replace the

bio-diversity that is totally lost.

Most of water sheds are gone

Soil erosion downhill

Forests and water sheds are now being depleted,

while there are not enough dams and catch basins to trap the high rainfall. Thus, with the tropical country’s high

rainfall, the heavy rainfall results in massive

flashfloods that bring destruction to lowlands

and tremendous soil erosion of fertile

agricultural top soil.This eventually results in

desertification and idle barren wastelands.

Extreme Wet and Dry Problems

RP has high rainfall yet lacks water not only for consumption but for irrigation

Agricultual scientists believe that although fertilizers, hybrid varieties and other inputs are necessary for good harvests, the top three things, agricultural crops need before you use other farm inputs are the following:

Without water irrigation, agriculture productivity will drop or stagnate. There is therefore WISDOM in harnessing water from rain. Hopefully, it is more DAM than WISH.

The Water Paradox : The Irony gets too big

1) Water 2) Water 3) Water

Farm yields are stagnating or falling compared to other countries, thus causing rural poverty.

From 1980-2000, China’s total agricultural productivity alone grew by 4.7 % a year, a whopping 4,600% higher than RP’s growth of only 0.1% a year for the same period.

Study by Arsenio Balisacan, PhD. Entiled “Philippine Agriculture: Are We Ready for Competition?” notes:

Farmer and his ‘BEAST’ friend.

Thailand grew by 1 % a year, or 900% more. Indonesia grew by 1.6% a year, or 1,500%

more than RP’s 0.1% agricultural productivity growth a year from 1980-2000.’

2000-2002 RP rice yields lowest at 3 MT per hectare China at 6 MT per hectare Indonesia and Vietnam at 4.1 per hectare Myanmar 3.2 MTEast and Southeast Asia: 3.6 MT per hectare,

RICE AND FALL?

2002-2002 RP corn yields lowest: 1.7 MT hectare China: average corn yields: 4.7 MT Vietnam and Indonesia: 2.8 MT per hectare Myanmar: 1.9 MT per hectare East and Southeast Asia: 2.5MT per hectare

The Grain of Truth

Paradox of Philippine Agriculure While the Philippines has the lowest average farm yields,

the technologies it has developed in rice are among the best in the world, considering it has IRRI and PhilRice;

Achieving 13- 15 MT per hectare are common. There was even a Filipino farmer who attained 17.5 MT per hectare;

But because there has been no massive large-scale infrastructures in dams, catch basins and irrigation facilities, for both lowland and uplands, the average farm yields remain low , despite improvements the last few years.

There may have been slight improvements on this decade-old data, but definitely other countries have also gone much further ahead, thus leaving us still far behind.

With low investments in agriculture like irrigation, farm yields are low, resulting in widespread poverty

Man is reduced to a ‘beast of burden’

NSCB) & ADB report:

Metro Manila’s poverty incidence is only less than 10% in 2003;

Masbate’s poverty incidence is about 61.4 %;

Sulu is the worst at 67.1% poverty level;

Most of the 1.5 billion poor Asians, who earn only US$2 a day or less, live in rural areas.

Poverty is worse in rural areas

Badjaos of Sulu / Basilan

Vintas of Sulu seas

A mini dam can do many?A small mini dam is

better than a big huge hydro electric dam.

Of course mini dams and catch basins or reservoirs cannot produce energy, although there are now mini-hydro power plants that can run on mere mountain streams.

But a mini dam can do more in many mini ways.

A law already exist to build small dams,

There’s already an existing but unenforced law, Republic Act No. 6716, which is supposed to build catch basins, small dams, and water wells in all of the country’s barangays;The law was passed as early as 1989 during the time of the late Pres. Cory Aquino;It mandates that that there should be over 100,000 rainwater catch basins nationwide by 1991, says environmentalist lawyer and U.P. Professor Atty Antonio Oposa Jr;Total catch basins and mini dams buillt by DPWH is only a miniscule 0.004 percent of the goal, Oposa said thru media reports.

But Mini dams & Many catch basins can Boost Agriculture and Wipe out Poverty S.W.I.Ps can be built on every strategic sloping

area by employing millions of rural folks in a massive labor-intensive, pick and shovel if necessary, construction frenzy;

The catch basins can serve as sources of water that can be treated and purified for drinking water;

The same SWIPS or catch basins can provide productivity-enhancing drip irrigation for crops planted downhill;

The catch basins can also be filled with fish as another source of livelihood;

Dams you must do, damned if you don’t

Small dams or SWIPS can reverse the steady decline in the country’s physical economy, an economic concept originated by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz;

Even NEDA records show that agriculture, for instance, steadily declined as a percentage of total economy from about 29 percent in 1971, to 23.5 % in 1980, down to 22.47% in 1990, and down to only 17.5% in 2005.

Industry as a share of total economy dropped steadily from 40.52 percent in 1980, down to 35.8 percent in 1990, and to 30.7 percent in 2005. (More so with manufacturing)

Services sector has swelled to about 60% of GDP. Although some services are socially necessary, they do not create physical wealth. Some services have dubious value to the economy (i.e. elevator boys), but still counted as part of GDP.

Govt must invest in rural dams, Coz Private sector will not do it Private Sector will not invest in rural infrastructures

or small dams, unless these will help their business; Thus, infrastructures are inherently a function of

government, which pioneers into frontier lands and venture projects;

Left alone in an unbridled free market, business will always tend to choose what is conveniently profitable----- invest more in short-term commerce, trade, banking and services and not in back-breaking agriculture or industry, what more in public infrastructures with long-gestating returns;

On solving unemployment, let’s learn from Nobel prize economist Dr. Arthur Okun and his

“OKUN’s LAW.It simply states that:“For every one percent (1%) decrease in the unemployment rate, one achieves a 3% increase in output or growth rate.”The logical strategy is to invest where the bulk of the unemployed & 2/3 of those below the poverty line are based---in AGRICULTURE. Thus it is wise for government to invest in rural infrastructures.And our small dam projects then become TOO BIG in strategic importance.

Let’s learn from HIS STORY

March of jobless to progrss. US Pres. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs mobilized the unemployed into training camps that gave them skills to build roads, water dams, bridges, farms, and various productive industries.

US Pres Franklin D. Roosevelt solved widespread 52% unemployment during the Great Depression with his New Deal policy that wiped out joblessness almost overnight;

One of his New Deal programs, which contributed to generating about 11 million jobs in two months, was the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The CCC mobilized millions of unemployed youngsters, who were herded into training camps for skills upgrading to build water dams, bridges, roads, farms, and various other infrastructures and industries.

Contact Details:

ATIN’TO Development Services

Michael M. Alunan: (0906) 38-58- 958

(0933) 61-54-150 Email: ekimnanula@yahoo.com

atintophil@yahoo.com

Dave S. Garcia: (0927) 79-28-583 Email: dsgar2000@yahoo.com

Thank you