Zambo City under state of calamity
ZAMBOANGA CITY—Local officials set aside political differences and finally conceded to requests to put the city under a state of calamity as rivers run dry due to the El Niño weather phenomenon and water is rationed to communities due to the limited supply.
The city council approved the resolution late Tuesday declaring the state of calamity as recommended by the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC) following requests of the Zamboanga City Water District (ZCWD) and the city agriculturist, Councilor Cesar Jimenez said on Wednesday.
Jimenez sponsored the measure, which drew the support of opposition members in the Sangguniang Panlungsod, Councilor Melchor Sadain said.
“The resolution was made so that emergency funds from the city government could be utilized for cloud-seeding. So far, we see the resolution a justified move because of the drought we experienced,” Sadain said.
On Monday, the CDRRMC urged the city council to declare the state of calamity even as the ZCWD said it was only able to provide about a third of the water volume it used to deliver to over 70,000 consumers.
The city agriculture office, on the other hand, said that rivers providing irrigation water were drying up. Its head, Diosdado Palacat, said at least 600 hectares of rice and corn fields had been wasted due to the effects of the drought and that the affected areas could widen further due to the lack of rain.
The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) has said the current dry spell is similar to the ones experienced in 1995, 1997 and 1998. “There will be no rainfall for about four months,” said Maribel Enriquez, Pagasa’s chief meteorologist here.
In November 2015, the city was supposed to experience 120.6 millimeters of rainfall based on normal weather conditions. “We only recorded 66.4 mm,” Enriquez said.
More dry days ahead
In December 2015, the rainfall volume based on normal conditions was supposed to be 66.8 mm but actual volume monitored was just 7.9 mm, she pointed out. This month, she said, the rainfall volume was supposed to be 49.7 mm but by all indications, it could not be more than 1 mm.
“It’s very alarming and we see more dry days, especially in February,” Enriquez said.
The ZCWD said that if the situation gets worse, the water level in the Pasonanca River could go beyond the current 71.10 meters, which is way below the tolerable operating level of 74.20 meters.
From an average flow of about 14,000 cubic meters per hour in previous years, the water district said the supply had gone down to only about 4,000.
To ease the situation, cloud-seeding operations have to be conducted, Palacat said. Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao
