DEPUTY Speaker Ralph Recto yesterday urged President Marcos Jr. to order the upgrade of the government’s Roadmap to Address the Impact of El Niño (RAIN) to ensure that the weather phenomenon will have minimum impact on the country’s food, electricity, and water supply.
Recto noted the warm spell will worst hit the agriculture sector, which is under the jurisdiction of the President who is the concurrent secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
RAIN is a comprehensive strategy paper drafted by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), which guided the whole-of-nation’s response during the 2015-2016 El Niño episode.
“Meron ng blueprint sa ganitong emergency (There’s already a blueprint for this emergency). Kailangan lang ay (We just have) to dust it off and brush it up, so it will be attuned to the unique characteristics of the 2023 version of El Niño,” Recto said.
The former senator said “one big motivating factor” for the President. to commission an El Niño response strategy “is that (El Niño) will hit a sector which is under his jurisdiction — agriculture.”
Recto said “assuring statements” coming from government agencies should not be limited to “dipstick readings on big water dams near Manila, because the country is big and sources are diverse.”
According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), there have been seven severe El Niño events since 1980, with the last one lasting from 2015 to 2016 and inflicting P17.78 billion ($327 million) in agricultural losses.
PAGASA earlier said El Niño was expected to begin by the third quarter of the year or between July and September and will last until next year.
Sevillo D. David Jr., National Water Resources Board executive director, on Monday said the agency was already coordinating with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, National Irrigation Administration, and other agencies for contingency plans to avoid a repeat of the 2019 water crisis under the Duterte administration.
David said Angat Dam, which supplies 96 percent of Metro Manila’s water needs, is currently at 199.37 meters, which is still at operating level.
To address the 2015-2016 El Niño episode, the Aquino administration crafted RAIN, which focused on ensuring food security, health, energy security, and safety of 67 impacted provinces and Metro Manila.
Recto said the Marcos government should have a whole-of-nation response of its own, and “I believe that the BBM version will be a superior one because it can draw from a wealth of previous experiences.”
Recto said the agriculture sector already has “preexisting comorbidities,” with the recent combined fuel-fertilizer crisis being on top “and foul weather should not be the third.”
“Scarcity in water leads to scarcity in food. This is not an alarmist statement. It is a fact, because without water, you cannot grow food,” said the House leader.
Recto cited a World Bank-cited study which showed that a “one degree increase in sea surface temperatures” led to a “3.7 percent decline in irrigated dry season production and a 13.7 percent decline in rain-fed dry season production in Luzon” because the lack of water shrinks planting areas, delay planting seasons and cut crop yields.
El Niño also negatively impacts livestock and poultry as high temperatures can cause heat stress on animals, Recto also said.
“Umiinom ang hayop at kailangan ang tubig upang panatilihing malinis at mapigilan ang sakit sa mga farms. May ASF (African Swine Fever) na nga sa baboy, tapos dadagdag pa ang kakulangan sa tubig (Animals drink and water is needed to ensure that farms are clean and disease-free. There’s already ASF in pigs and now, lack of water),” he said.
