Thursday, August 21, 2008 Ledesma: Water under the bridge By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
DAVAO City Councilor Pilar Braga, chair of the City Council Energy Committee, should not indulge in a blame game over the reported decision of Hedcor decision to withdraw its plan to put up a hydro-power plant in upper Tamugan river.
Pilar lamented Hedcor's decision which she said came after a protracted hearing on the objections of the Davao City Water District (DCWD) against putting up a mini-hydro generator in Tamugan. She rightfully said that scrapping the project will seriously have a negative impact on the energy requirement for Davao City.
Hedcor, by the way, is a sister company of Davao Light and Power Corporation. It is engaged in providing cheap energy supply for the Aboitiz power firms by tapping renewable source of energy.
Advance countries worldwide tap renewable sources of energy like wind, geothermal, water and biomass even before the advent of oil crisis. Davao City is abundant in ambient water resource and lucky to be adjacent to geothermal energy source.
Tamugan river could easily provide an added 20 megawatts of electricity. It is not much because it has to consider environmental issues, but 20 meg added to what we already have can save the nightlife for our homes and insure that the wheels of industries will keep on turning.
Pilar should be angry at herself for her inability to put a break on the hysterics of DCWD and pan-handling environmentalists. She should have shot down quickly the trivial allegation of DCWD and kibitzing NGOs that Hedcor's hydro plant will deplete and pollute the water supply of Davao City. This is hogwash. This scare tactic somehow paralyzed the likes of Councilor Braga into immobility.
There too is the issue that if the reservoir of DCWD will be at lower elevation where the diverted water that runs the hydro-generator will egress, the gravitational force from that elevation will not be sufficient to bring the water down to city consumers.
DCWD adds, and Pilar obviously believes, that the water district will be spending millions of pesos on electricity to run their pumps to increase water pressure in lieu of gravity. The council must carefully scrutinize the plan of DCWD and that of Hedcor for it looks like the catchment of DCWD in Tamugan is almost in the same elevation where the diverted water from the hydro generators will flow back to the mainstream of the river.
DCWD too will be diverting water to that reservoir where, I understand, filtering of debris will be done before it is finally released to the main distribution pipe down to the city water reservoirs. This expensive process could actually be removed from DCWD's expense as Hedcor will do that in a more tedious manner.
What aggravates the indecision of the City Council to decisively deal with the impasse between DCWD and Hedcor was when it allowed the legislative body to be held hostage by DCWD's claim that it has prior rights to tap Tamugan river. That is merely a privilege and should not be taken as an eternal and exclusive right to exploit the resource.
DCWD has lost its privilege when it failed to make use of it when this was issued as far back as 1997. I therefore cannot comprehend why the city council refused to exercise its coercive power to make DCWD and Hedcor agree on a happy compromise. Hedcor runs their business with corporate savvy. They execute their plans in accordance to their timetable. Cost of money, recovery of investments and profits are factored in.
In a situation where there are too many impediments to reckon with, they can always move to their next priority. We see this unfolding and like Pilar, we feel sorry by 2010 we might have to bear with the consequence. Now, if you think DCWD will be able to start with its eternally gestating project to source out water from Tamugan within another decade, that indeed will be the sixth joyful mystery. As of now it is all water under the bridge.
