|
Monday, August 21, 2006
Dacawi: Figuring out Baguio
By Ramon Dacawi
Benchwarmer
THREE distinct natural and man-made features of Baguio call for policies covering infrastructure development, water extraction and recharge, and human waste disposal.
Former environment secretary Elisea Gozun stressed this last Monday when she facilitated a city level consultation on vision and strategy formulation for city and barangay officials and representatives of the business, academe, professional, and non-government organizations.
First, the city is crossed by geological fault-lines. Second, 85 percent of its water is ground extract. Third, most of its toilet waste is stored in septic tanks.
"To what extent are we using the geo-hazard map (based on studies done by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau after the 1990 earthquake)," as a guide to determine where low-impact type of development should be.
With 85 percent of the city's water supply coming from deepwells, what's the sustainable yield? she asked. "Are we extracting more than the recharge? Do we limit digging of deepwells? What's the rate of recharge of these natural underground aquifers, given the continuous sealing of the ground surface by cement?"
Lack of recharge creates a vacuum on the aquifers, which aggravates the subsidence problem.
How do we maximize water use? Do we flush the toilet with used or rain water? How many times do we empty our septic tanks? The standard is every five years. Where do those "puso-negro" extractors end up with their extract?
What's the depth of our septic tanks in relation to the groundwater depth? The groundwater depth in Boracay is one meter, which explains the presence of e-coli bacteria floating on the beach a few years back.
Gozun posed these queries as team leader of the City Development Strategies in the Philippines, which conducted the forum. Beyond professional call, she, however, admitted being as concerned as anybody else because of fond memories here.
City Planning and Development Officer Art Orig is also right when he said many of the infrastructure - buildings, houses, deepwells and septic tanks - have long been there, built over the years.
"Baguio is a city that just grew and grew," noted the late Baguio journalist Steve Hamada in a parody of Topsy from Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin".
So we work within the givens, however limited these may be.
The answers to some of the questions are obvious. Still, we do not have the accurate figures, say, the actual rate of depletion of our forest cover vis-à-vis the rate of infrastructure development or urbanization. We grope for statistics we need to guide us in the formulation of policies to address these issues.
Yet, as Gozun's team noted, we have the best schools in the country. We can tap them for the research towards obtaining the figures that will help us figure out the answers to where we are. And what we can do together. Within the givens.-(e-mail: rdacawi@yahoo.com for comments)
(August 21, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
|
