IT’S been raining almost every day for the past two weeks. I love rain. Aside from not having to water my plants, I like the cold weather it brings. Farmers love it too, but not too much of it I’m sure. Continuous downpour brings flood and damages crops. Indiscriminate dumping of garbage makes flooding worst.

Rain is an important part of the water cycle. This cycle has been going on for millions of years. The disasters and inconveniences we suffer today are results of what we did, and continue to do, to disrupt this natural cycle. Houses and buildings were built on natural waterways. There’s cemented ground everywhere, reducing seepage and increasing drainage flow. Mountains were denuded reducing the ability of watersheds to store water.

I read an interesting article by Tim Miner on https://modernsteader.com/why-rain-is-important/ which tackles this topic. I agree with his observation on the damage we created to earth by disrupting the natural cycle. We are currently consuming and polluting our water sources across the globe at a rate that far outpaces the Earth’s ability to recharge and to heal itself.

One example cited is agriculture. Rain-fed agriculture used to be the norm but now more than 40% of the world’s agricultural production is irrigation-fed. In Kapampangan we call that “salud uran”. Farm lands which do not have irrigation systems rely on rain for water.

Irrigation using ground water puts a strain on the water tables as well as the rivers and streams. So the question is how to responsibly and effectively manage rainfall for the benefit of the farmers that produce food while leaving enough for those that live downstream. That’s for policy makers to think about.

There are evidences of over consumption of water and disruption of its natural flow. The Aral Sea in central Asia has lost half its surface area, most of its volume, and all of its once-enormous fishing industry. Formerly one of the four largest lakes in the world with an area of 68,000 km2, the Aral Sea has been shrinking since the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects. By 1997, it had declined to 10% of its original size.

Another is the Salton Sea which was initially a freshwater lake. By the 1960s its rising salinity had begun to jeopardize some of its species. With salinity exceeding that of seawater, most species of fish can no longer survive. By 2014, large swaths of lake bed were exposed and salt levels drastically increased due to mandated water transfers to metropolitan areas along the coast and other factors, limiting the water inflow.

Our own Laguna Lake, one of the five largest freshwater lakes in the whole of Southeast Asia and a major source of food and livelihood for thousands of people, is slowly dying from industrial and household pollution.

Waterways and the rainfall that feeds them are all interconnected. Disrupt this natural connection and we end up with disastrous results.