Wednesday, August 29, 2007 Osmeña: Amend MCWD charter By Antonio V. OsmeÑa Estatements
THERE is now a need to know how much water is used for domestic purposes (cooking, drinking, washing, watering gardens and flushing away wastes), irrigation to produce food (agriculture), by businesses and industries as well as to cool electric power plants.
Since the private sector and government support the development of tourism facilities in the islands of Cebu, a sustainable supply of water must be established.
Cebu’s political leaders continue to practice the hodgepodge approach to the island-wide supply, distribution and use of potable water.
Since time immemorial, the fragile islands of Cebu has depended on natural hydrologic (water) cycle.
The water we use comes from two sources: surface water and groundwater.
Surface water flows in streams and rivers and is stored in natural lakes, wetlands and reservoirs constructed by humans. Surface water entering rivers and fresh water lakes is called runoff. This source of water is renewed fairly rapidly (12 to 20 days) in areas with average precipitation.
Water that sinks into the soil, where it may be stored for long times in flowing slowly to renew underground reservoirs, is called groundwater. It makes up about 95 percent of the world’s supply of water (having 1,000 to 4,000 parts per million or ppm of dissolved solids), saltwater (having 4,000 to 18,000 ppm), and seawater (having 18,000 to 35,000 ppm) through reverse osmosis.
Reverse osmosis is a process in which energy is used to force saltwater through membranes with pores too small to permit the salts to pass through.
Although we can’t increase Cebu’s supply of water, we can manage what we have more effectively if Congress will amend the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) charter by consolidating all of the province’s water distribution into one non-political entity.
Critics have indicated that for Cebu’s long-range comprehensive master plan to succeed, a better approach is for Congress to enact an independent planning authority with members appointed for staggered terms of six to 12 years.
Ideally, highly respected generalists and sustainable earth thinkers would be appointed to the planning authority of government. This planning authority could form and direct task forces or Councils of Urgent Studies.
Such councils would study problems and direct efforts to find social and technological innovations and tunnel effects for solving short — intermediate — and long-range problems.
The members of the planning authority would evaluate and integrate matters that ordinary people consider priorities for action with those that specialized experts think the public needs.
I believe Tourism Secretary Ace Durano and other tourism stakeholders should strongly lobby for the conduct of a research on the identification of effective methods for long range planning for a major national budget priority not only with regard to the water problem, but also road infrastructure development.
Can a pristine environment, needed for tourism activities, be compatible with the pollution created by the mining operations in the island of Cebu?
Critics also argue that tremendous amount of water is needed in a copper mining operation.
The creation then of the Councils or Urgent Studies should be able to determine the distribution and use of potable water for the greater welfare of all inhabitants of Cebu.
Let us remind our leaders that failure to deal with urgent long-range problems can lead to chaos and fear, making our country ripe again for a demagogic leader who offers simple answers to complex problems. People then might be tempted to surrender freedoms for stability.
