After the water crisis, floods again

The solution to the water crisis in many parts of the country is the same solution for the devastating floods that perennially wreak havoc on our communities.

Meaning, the engineering infrastructure and other scientific steps that will address the dilemma on scarce water supply, especially during the El Niño phenomenon, are the same for the nightmares and sufferings during inundations caused by the monsoon and typhoon season. Therefore, trying to solve one massive problem almost automatically solve another. Truly, one stone hitting two birds.

The recent climatological phenomenon referred to as El Niño, where the usual volume of rainwater is 60 percent less in provinces that were affected, visits the Philippines regularly at least every three to five years. More than 50 provinces in fact suffered from drought and prolonged dry spell these past few months, starting from late 2023 until the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration officially declared that it was over recently. But this was only after more than P9.8 billion in agricultural damage deprived our farmers of their supposed income and in the process, worsened the inflation that further penalized buyers of agricultural products.

Farmers and their families are the usual direct victims here. Remember, there are at least 10 million Filipinos in the agricultural sector. To begin with, they are already at the lower end of the chain and almost always at the end of their wits too on how to survive or dream of a brighter future for their children. El Niño is just another blow to their vicious cycle of impoverishment and deprivation. Yet, they have the noble mission of feeding a nation of more than 110 million consumers. In the Philippines, being a farmer is almost synonymous to being financially poor, no access to decent housing and sanitation and difficult chance for higher education. Being a farmer in the rural areas also means being vulnerable to the harsh onslaught of nature during extreme weather conditions. With the El Niño, almost 200,000 farmers in the more than 170,000 hectares of farmland gravely suffered. Livestock that’s worth more than P68 million was also