Category: life and death

environment 5: ormoc & security

ORMOC: TOWARD ECOLOGICAL SECURITY

Junie Kalaw

The Philippine environmental crisis took what is possibly its heaviest and cruelest toll on human life in Ormoc City. According to eyewitness reports by survivors, the waters had come abruptly, almost in the wink if an eye, sweeping everything in its path, a veritable deluge which the camera conveyed as so many bloated bodies floating like so many discarded dolls.

In the comparably torrential rush to absolve itself, the government attributed the denudation of forests in the Ormoc area to logging activities harking as far back as the 1950s, declaring that there hadn’t been any logging in the area in recent years. Media caused more disturbance by reporting intimations from sources within the government itself that politicians, military officials, and Department of Natural Resources (DENR) officials were, in some as yet indeterminate sense, culpable. The partisan character of government’s response once more evaded the fact that ecological responsibility is shared beyond the time-frames of electoral politics; similarly, the readiness of certain quarters within government to blame their cohorts indicates a tendency to pass the buck. But this is the way that government mocks the people’s suffering. We would have been surprised if it got around to pointing out how the geothermal facility in Ormoc contributed to the disaster, for that would have come too close to its plans for Mount Apo in Mindanao.

Our concept of security needs reorienting. We erode fertile topsoil at the rate of one billion cubic meters a year, enough land to produce 10 million sacks of rice. There are 13 badly eroded provinces in the country today that qualify as unrealized security risks. If conditions in one or two areas decline enough to reprise Ormoc next monsoon, will the new administrationsimilarly wash its hands of responsibility?

Disaster relief operations in the country are usually undertaken by the military, who admittedly may be relied upon to fulfill this function. During such occasions, they are said to be diverted from their normal task of overseeing the country’s security. The frequent occurrence, however, of environmental disasters today compels us to ask if the current definition of “normal” military duties requires updating, having been drawn from an old and narrow perspective of national security. Isn’t it time that this old concept be amended to include ecological security, with the army tasked to protect our forests: the navy, our coral reefs and fishing grounds, and the air force our atmosphere?

For far too long, in all countries that have not had the fortune of having a long history of neutrality, the military has competed for resources that have promoted violence instead of peace, its concern being to maintain and modernize its armature, which amounts to a potential for violence. It will be argued, of course, that peace is precisely what is expected to bring about to the extent of adopting a functional rationality in the extreme case of war. However, it may in turn be argued that the concept of war has already changed substantially, as when the government itself speaks of the need to do war against ignorance or poverty, or when an industrial society exports toxic waste to secure its own people’s health, or strains another country’s standards of safety for its own profit.

The idea of ecological security entails the use of information as a weapon and shifts the focus from human targets to natural structures. Securing the integrity of natural structures then becomes a limit beyond which the military becomes obsolete because it will have transformed itself from being an instrument of genocide into a facilitator of the life process

10 November 1991

of typhoons and dams 2

Archive the monster dams

By Marlen V. Ronquillo, Manila Times 30 Sept 09

What is the global mantra nowadays? It is something like this: Always turn a crisis into an opportunity. Or, do not let a crisis go to waste.

How do we turn Ondoy’s wreckage into opportunity? From the surface, this is quite hard to even think of right now, given the magnitude of the death and destruction brought about by Ondoy’s record-high rainfall. Even those mildly suffering are still stunned over our own version of Katrina: instant death, submerged towns and cities, desperate cries for help of the dying, the inadequacy of the rescue efforts.

You have a mental account of what took place in places like Bocaue and Cainta. People lazing around on a Saturday morning (some sipping coffee, some still bundled in bed.) Suddenly, the water rises. One hour later, they are trapped in a watery inferno. Some make it to the rooftop. Others fail to make it.

The stiff, ice-cold and graying bodies of infants that littered the low-lying towns of Metro Manila, Rizal and Central Luzon cannot find any form of justification. They had glimpsed life—only to be cut short in a cruel, instant death.

But like in all aftermaths, the survivors have to take up the tools and go on with their lives. Grief is always transitory. I know. I lost everything to the Pinatubo eruption. The day after the Big Bang I had nothing except the shirt on my back—and anguish. The investment of a lifetime, an integrated farm just 30 kilometers off the volcano’s crater, was doomed by hot sand. Two weeks after, however, you start shifting through the wreckage to build anew.

Life’s unfailing narrative is rebuilding from tragedies.

The first priority is a concern of public policy—the system that has favored the construction of costly, multi-purpose dams. The giant dam policy should be reviewed, then archived. It is a 19th century policy prescription and it is no longer relevant nowadays.

The giant dams, during times of excessive rainfall, have to let go of excess water to prevent the collapse of the holding structures. Every water release, though calibrated by the standards of dam managers, has a terrible impact on the low-lying communities along the rivers and tributaries that absorb the released water. Precisely, this was the case on Saturday. Quezon City’s traditionally safe areas were submerged neck-deep after the water releases from the dams.

The dams are rendered safe by the water releases. But the communities and the people that these dams are theoretically mandated to serve through potable water supply, power needs and irrigation water have been either maimed or killed by the water releases.

If the dams are dangerous during periods of excessive rainfall, they are also not performing up to par during the dry season.

If you pass by the giant Pantabangan dam during the dry season, you would see the spire of the old town church jutting out of the low-level water. Because the watershed areas that are supposed to replenish the dam’s water supply during the dry season are fast-vanishing, Pantabangan is barely-functioning during the peak of the dry season. During El Niños, it is in worse shape.

Magat dam, a giant, multi-purpose dam like Pantabangan, is likewise spooked by the same problem of denuded watershed areas. Like Pantabangan, the dry season always sees Magat suffer from FTP, or failure to perform.

All the giant dams such as Magat, Pantabangan and Ca-secnan had been funded by loans given government guarantees. They are costly, their huge cost made more terrible by the huge interest payments.

The interest payment from the loans used to fund the construction of the giant dams alone is enough to fill the classroom void, the textbook lack and the inadequacy of public school teachers.

Ok, what is the alternative to these costly dams often suffering from bouts of FTP?

Invest in research and development (R and D) to develop safe, less costly and more efficient technologies for irrigation. Then, give RE (renewable energy) a big push to lessen the dependence on the multi-purpose dams for power needs. This will remove all the reasons for building these costly and unsafe dams.

Countries across the globe are doing the same thing, reviewing their giant dam construction projects in favor of safer more efficient substitutes.

Archiving the dams is truly a 21st century imperative.

mvrong@yahoo.com

of typhoons and dams

sept 27 sunday, around two o’clock in the afternoon, dzmm teleradyo

tail end of a live presscon of gma and gibo and the national disaster coordinating council (ndcc) trying their darndest to appear like they have been and continue to be on top of the situation, doing the best that can be done given the unexpected unprecedented unbearable volume of rainfall that ondoy brought.

dost director graciano yumol was in the middle of a hardsell that typhoon ondoy was in many ways different from hurricane katrina.   among other things, he gave the impression that the ndcc was prepared for, having seen, that huge flood coming.    say niya, “…early in the afternoon we were already telling them to evacuate…”    at noong hurricane katrina daw, ang response time ng u.s. government was two days.   ang ndcc?    “first thing in the morning ndcc was on the scene.   that’s how quick ndcc responded…”

yeah, right.

3:45 p.m.  gibo was back for another presscon.   caught him saying that the news of ondoy coming was duly reported in the papers.   we were warned.   but of course daw there was no predicting so much rain pouring down steadily for hours on end.   on top of that, september has been a rainy month, 4 weather disturbances daw before ondoy, kaya saturated na ang lupa and could not absorb any more of the rainwater.

gibo should have gone on to talk about the dams, angat and ipo in bulacan, and la mesa in quezon city.   instead government has been avoiding the question and would have us believe that no water was released, the dams were not full from the same september rains.

flashback to 13 september 09

about angat dam in particular, but which could apply to ipo and la mesa dams as well in terms of how full of water they were:

Angat Dam nearing spill level

MALOLOS CITY, Philippines – Water elevation at the giant Angat Dam is about to reach its spilling level of 210 meters as rains continue in Central Luzon, and local officials fear that it might break if pressure mounts.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) yesterday afternoon raised public storm warning signal no. 1 in nine provinces in northern Luzon with the arrival of tropical depression “Nando.”

. . . Records from the Provincial Disaster Management Office (PDMO) obtained by The STAR showed that water elevation at the Angat Dam climbed to 209.65 meters as of 8 a.m. yesterday.

Officials said the steady rise of water elevation at the giant water reservoir that supplies 97 percent of Metro Manila’s water requirements is caused by constant rainfall over the past weeks.

On Sept. 1, PDMO records showed that water elevation was only 204.89 meters.

High water elevation at the dam means enough water for Metro Manila but the continued rains might breach the dam’s spilling level that would require the release of water to ease pressure on the dikes.

In the past, the National Power Corp. (Napocor) managing the Angat Dam watershed usually released water from the dam through the Angat River when water elevation breached its spilling level of 210 meters.

Bulacan officials have demanded that the rehabilitation of the aging Angat Dam be prioritized over the proposed multibillion-dollar construction of Laiban Dam in Rizal.

Without repair, they said the 41-year-old Angat Dam poses danger to millions of residents of Bulacan and neighboring provinces, citing documents from the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) that the dam is sitting on a geological fault line and has already developed cracks.

forward to september 14

about angat dam’s condition, more than 40 years after it was built and commissioned.

No Cracks in Angat Dam

MANILA – The Angat Dam management assured the public that the dam does not have any cracks, dispelling the feared disaster that could happen if the dam crumbles.

During a survey of the Angat Dam in Bulacan on Sunday, local officials and the dam’s management showed some media members that the dam is safe.

The survey of the area, which took almost one hour, did not see signs that there is danger in the area.

“Sabi ng MWSS [Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System]… normal na merong seepage… pero walang crack,” said Neri Amparo, regional director of the Office of Civil Defense-Region 3.

Authorities have also pointed at the seepage from which the water is released from the dam.

But the Angat Dam management maintained that the seepage is normal in dams that are made of earth and rockfill. They also believe that the dam will last long.

“Kaya pang tumagal nito ng 50 years, except kung magkaroon ng earthquake,” remarked Romualdo Beltran of the dam’s reservoir and management division, National Power Corp. (NPC).

Downplayed fears

On Saturday, the Sagip Sierra Madra Environmental Society expressed alarm that continuous rains could aggravate the reported seepage in the Angat Dam as a portion of the dam is located on the Marikina West Valley Fault Line.

The environmental group members feared the possibility of an earthquake that could cause the dam’s destruction and lead to a flashflood.

They noted that if the seepage expands, water will forcibly be released from the dam.

This could submerge 11 towns in water, namely Norzagaray, Angat, Bustos, San Rafael, Baliuag, Plaridel, Malolos, Calumpit, Paombong and Hagonoy in Bulacan, and Masantol in Pampanga.

In addition, the reported cracks in the dam pose a threat to the water supply in Metro Manila as 97 percent of its water supply comes from the dam.

The Angat Dam management, however, downplayed such fears.

NPC plant manager Rodolfo German said: “Matagal ng isyu yan… ginagawan nila ng dam remediation.”

“Nagkaroon ng 2 major earthquakes… wala kaming nakikitang signs na nag-deteriorate ang dam structure natin,” noted Jose Dorado, principal engineer from the MWSS.

Despite the continuous rains, the management said it is not yet time to release water from the dam because the water level is still safe. –

forward to sept 25 and ondoy

it rained all night and most of the next day.    all three dams must have been spilling water after all that rain.   by noon there may have been great fear that the structures (angat, at least) would give way under the immense pressure and release the water in one humongous wave.   infinitely safer to release the water little by little, sort of.   and so it happened.

The Bulacan Provincial Disaster Management Office (PDMO) reported the Angat dam commenced spilling operations at about 1 p.m. on Saturday with the initial opening of its radial gate, releasing one cubic meter of water every 30 minutes until total outflows reached 500 cubic meters per second.

The state media said reports from the Bulacan Provincial Disaster Management Office (PDMO) showed that hardest hit by the raging floods were the towns of Marilao, where waters rose to as high as 9 feet; Bustos, 7 feet, and Bocaue, 5 feet.

Gov. Joselito Mendoza of Bulacan said the flooding, the worst to hit the province since October 1978, was compounded by the release of water from the overflowing Angat dam and Ipo dam in Norzagaray town.

i have no idea, there are no similar reports, about how much later, or sooner, water was released from the ipo and the la mesa dams.   i suspect it all happened that saturday afternoon, around the time when the water started rising swiftly and inexorably,and reaching places never before touched by flood waters.

. . .  Valenzuela Rep. Magtangol “Magi” Gunigundo blamed the inefficient handling of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), local government units (LGUs) and officials of the La Mesa Dam for the worst flood that hit Metro Manila.

“The Metro Manila calamity was aggravated by poor coordination of MMDA, PAGASA, LGUs and La Mesa Dam authorities. No effective dissemination of information on rainfall, no warning by La Mesa Dam authorities on their decision to release impounded water. Delayed MMDA and LGUs response,” an irate Gunigundo said in an interview.

what were they thinking?    that all that additional water would drain directly out to the manila bay?   nakalimutan nila, o hindi nila alam, that rivers along the way are all silted up because of land erosion, thanks to deforestation, and esteros are all clogged up with nonbiodegradable plastic  trash, thanks to an mmda that’s apparently given up on the garbage problem?   no wonder kung saan-saan nakarating ang baha.

of course it’s quite possible that government officials just didn’t want to cause panic.   imagine the hysteria, and the horrendous traffic once people started evacuating.   but, hey, in such a crisis a good leader should have no trouble addressing the people, explaining the situation, allaying fears, offering advice, and mobilizing the media and the internet to assist and facilitate.

anc’s pia hontiveros is so right to ask, bakit walang warning?    maybe authorities were correct to release the water in controlled increments,  maybe it was the lesser evil.   but but but the public should have been seriously warned.   the people deserve to be given adequate information on matters that affect their lives so that they can make the right decisions, that is, whether to stay and brave the elements, in which case, walang sisihan!   or whether to go and seek higher ground while there’s time, with at least some possessions and their dignity intact.

meanwhile, let’s pray really hard that typhoon peping pepeng changes course.

in cory’s wake

when ninoy died and his remains lay in bloodied state sa times street, pumila kami that night, my husband and i, to pay our respects, never mind that marcos might get mad or his military might be watching.   we just had to pay homage to this man who won our respect when he, alone, suffered jail for seven years and seven months rather than bow to a dictator, and when he dared come home from exile because the filipino is worth dying for.

past the gate a couple of kids handed us a black ribbon each, a small strip with aspili.   the patio too was small, the space enough only for the line of people snaking single-file around the coffin for a quick hello and goodbye, as quick as the pass-by cory’s coffin i’m now seeing on tv.   it was also very quiet.   the house was closed, there was no sign of any family or friends.   except for two or three watchful guys standing by (security siguro) we, the people, were alone with ninoy.   a starkly simple affair.

with cory, aba, sosyal!   what a case-study of a scene.    the huge venues and tv cameras, the people quietly filing by the coffin while family and friends sit around, move around, make chika nearby.   how rare, masses and elite sharing the same space happily, clear divisions and all.   the silent masa are just happy to be allowed a glimpse of cory one last time, never mind that they enter by a different gate, and are not treated like guests and offered seats.   the elite are just happy that the masses are there too, imagine if they weren’t, what a snub, how embarrassing.

interesting, too, that gma the once lucky bitch is now the the odd woman out.   indeed, she’s damned if she goes, damned if she doesn’t.   pero dapat kaya niyang magpunta.   just as dapat kaya ng mga aquino na tanggapin siya.   of course kung type niyang magdrama, she could always do the unexpected, like, line up with the people, why not, pay her respects to cory first, before facing cory’s clan.   i’m sure even kris would be lost for words  (well, at least for a while ;).

of course it would mean gma counting on the people to be too awed by her pa-humble chutzpah to do anything but welcome her among their ranks.   but what if the people remember only that cory had asked her to resign.   what if they do an edsa instead, like, you know, stop her from getting any closer to cory, kapitbisig human-shieldeffect.   lol.   that would be the end of her.   safer not to cross lines.   safer to face kris.