Mercado: Common confiteor
Saturday, March 20, 2010
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“No. I wouldn’t call it vodoo policy. That’d give witch doctors a bad name.” –former US vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro
MAYOR Tomas Osmeña originally hired, on taxpayers’ account, a “water diviner”: Ms. Soledad “Soleng” Legaspi, 80. For P10,000 a day, this mother of five from Laguna pinpointed “30 water sources in six El Niño-parched barangays,” aides breathlessly claim.
The City commissioned Ms. Soleng earlier to locate 20 water sources within the 296-hectare South Reclamation Properties (SRP). Global Positioning Systems nail down sites that Ms. Legaspi picks in her strolls.
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Auditors, however, don’t approve consultancies for psychics. So, the mayor backtracked.
Unveiling of Osmeña’s “magic wand” came on the eve of World Water Day. At the 1994 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the Philippines and 171 other governments set World Water Day on March 22 of every year.
We don’t want to rain on His Honor’s “medium.” But from day one in City Hall, he insisted that Cebu City had no water problem.
What about those studies on Cebu’s water crunch by World Bank, Delft University, US Aid, Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Water Resources Center, Camp Dresser & McKee International, etc.? Rubbish, scoffed His Honor.
So, what is Ms. Soleng solving? a phantom shortage? “Your problem is water,” President Arroyo told Cebu businessmen years back. “Decide in 30 days. Decide now.” City Hall didn’t budge.
Cebu is 95 percent dependent on water mined from collapsing aquifers. The city siphons over 275,000 cubic meters daily—double what those underground reservoirs can recharge. “This is a formula for ecological bankruptcy,” Cebu Daily News pointed out.
Water tables here have slumped. Salt water has seeped into aquifers over eight kilometers inland... causing irreversible damage. Metro Cebu Water District serves only 55 percent of residents.
Babies and migrants tripled Cebu’s population in 40 years. They use 94 million cubic meters yearly. Demand will surge to 210 mcm/yr in 2030. Nonetheless, Osmeña blocked proposals to pipe surface water from outside the city. That’s the only alternative to terminal collapse of aquifers—unless Ms. Soleng’s “black magic” casts its spell. Of course.
World Bank-supported Philippine Environment Monitor tracks water, among other resources. It reports: (a) “Water Quantity/Availability: Basins of Agusan and Mindanao have the highest amount. Cebu the lowest… Shortages will be in Cebu, Pasig-Laguna, Pampanga… (b) “Salt Water Intrusion: Critical areas are Cebu, Iloilo, Dagupan, Cavite… (c) “Coliform, Pesticides & Others: Heavy metals and toxics contribute to pollution in Metro Manila, Cebu and mining areas in Cordillera…”
Will Osmeña share Ms. Soleng’s “technical expertise” with 14 El Niño-parched provinces? He’d be a national hero overnight.
Here’s a “Confiteor” for the blame we all share for this crisis.
Ferdinand Marcos blocked the dam proposed by Mayor Sergio Osmeña, his rival. Many treat rivers as their latrine. Firms dump chemical sludge into them. Daily, we waste water.
Politicians staked out 8,944 claims for 12,987 lots in our watershed. Forest cover is down to two percent. Dealers seek a quick buck by drilling into collapsing aquifers for water-short SRP.
Osmeña’s denial built on our lapses. Arrogance gives vodoo policy a caustic edge, a servile City Council murmurs: “Amen” —and taps spew brackish water. Sorry, Ms. Soleng.
