El Niño toilet tip: ‘If yellow, let it mellow’

Dusty cars, smelly toilets and shorter showers may be part of the price Filipinos have to pay to cope with the strong El Niño phenomenon bearing down on the country.

In fact, visiting American water conservationist Thomas Pape has a catchy ditty to sum it up: “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down,” he said, referring to how toilet use can be made more water-friendly.

Under the potentially crippling threat of El Niño, Filipinos must learn to put up with some inconveniences—like unwashed cars and smelly toilets, said the technical adviser to the US-based Alliance for Water Efficiency.

Pape visited the Philippines in September on the invitation of the US Agency for International Development, as part of its Be Secure project, and met with policy makers, mayors and governors, educators, students and water agency officials to discuss the impact of El Niño and other matters related to water demand management and conservation.

Most severe in 65 years

Pape warned the country to prepare itself in the next few months for the unknown but likely devastating impact of El Niño, a phenomenon caused by the warming of equatorial parts of the Pacific Ocean.

US meteorologists warned in September that this year’s El Niño could be one of the most severe in 65 years, with the country’s Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) weather bureau predicting that it could be the Philippines’ worst brush with this weather phenomenon since 1997.

“There could be months and months of 60 percent less rainfall in your country. This could be a calamity for the Philippines,” Pape told the Inquirer in a recent interview.

But there are ways for households to temper the severity of the looming water shortage as a result of the El Niño episode, he said, citing new habits that Filipinos can adopt, among them:

Don’t flush the toilet after peeing. Use a dipper (tabo) when you do.

Wash dishes using a basin, so you can save the dirty water and reuse it for flushing the toilet.

Reduce your laundry load by wearing your pants and shirts at least twice. “Only underwear gets changed daily,” Pape said.

Personal cup

Household members should have a personal cup with their name on it, that they can use several times and wash only at the end of the day.

Use your own bath towel that will be washed only after several uses.

Do not wash your car every day. “A dusty car is a dusty car. But a clean car does not benefit society,” Pape said.

Take shorter showers.

Instead of using the shower, use the trusty pail and dipper to save water. Or bathe using a big basin (banyera) to collect the water you use from the shower.

Reuse water in a variety of ways. Used bath water can be collected to wash the car. Water used for washing dishes can be reused to water the plants.

Pape said city folk can actually learn from people living in the provinces who need to fetch their water from some distant source using pails or containers.

Standards and benchmarks

“They know how to use water more efficiently because nobody wants to go back to fetch more water. They try to do as much as they can with what they have,” he said.

The visiting expert said changes in personal habits in using water should extend to the Philippine government, which can do a lot to conserve water, particularly in institutionalizing standards and benchmarks for household appliances.

Pape noted that in the United States, manufacturers of certain products like shower heads were required to give such information as the rate of water consumption per minute.

Meanwhile, garden hoses should have a nozzle that can immediately stop the flow of water when not in use.

“Consumers should have the products labeled. Have the government lead by example. Have government buildings, schools and dorms retrofitted,” he added.

The Philippines also needs a national plumbing code that will standardize piping sizes, maximum flush volumes, and maximum flow for shower heads, the technical expert said, adding that he was encouraged by the enthusiasm of Filipino policy makers he had met during his visit.

“I think people are very enthusiastic, even the high school kids,” he said.

Americans are, however, generally more educated and have a higher degree of understanding of water conservation principles, Pape noted.

“But we’ve been doing this for 30 years in the US, and they are not as enthusiastic as [you] are now in the Philippines,” he added.

Finite resource

Although water is a human right, people have to understand that it is a finite resource that will run out, Pape said.

“People are saying water is a human right. That’s fine, but here’s the problem: When you pay for water, you are not being charged the value of water. Water is free. But you are being charged for the cost to pump, deliver, treat, monitor and filter the water for your use,” he said.

Pape explained: “You do not pay for water, but the cost to get it to you. That’s everybody’s water. The water you waste is water someone doesn’t get to use, like farmers who cannot grow their crops.”

Pape also clarified that although the threat of El Niño is very real, its effects cannot be fully predicted by scientists.

“We don’t know (that) for certain because we have not seen it this bad. To prepare for the worst case, you must start doing something now,” Pape said.

Stronger cyclones

In the Philippines, the El Niño phenomenon has historically manifested itself in low average rainfall resulting in drought, as well as stronger tropical cyclones.

The country suffered its worst El Niño period from 1997 to 1998, when more than P8 billion worth of crops were destroyed. In 1982 and 1983, it damaged P700 million worth of rice and corn. Agricultural losses reached over P4 billion in 1992 to 1993.

In 2009, a relatively weak El Niño episode hit the country, but it interacted with the monsoon season as it was developing, resulting in the onslaught of strong and destructive cyclones, from Tropical Storm “Ondoy” in September to Typhoons “Pepeng” and “Santi” in October.

Last month, Pagasa said climate models had shown that the ongoing El Niño event was “comparable or may even surpass” the country’s worst El Niño period in 1997 to 1998.