EL NIÑO and La Niña are Spanish words that crept into Asian English. And the words signify not adorable tykes but horrible twin monsters.
True, the partisan political temperature is sizzling. But so too El Niño, the scourge that have caused food and water shortages and have ravaged farming across Asia.
El Niño that began last year has been one of the strongest ever, leaving the Mekong River at its lowest level in decades, causing food-related unrest in Kidapawan, Philippines, and engulfed vast regions in a months-long heat wave often reaching beyond 40 degrees Celsius.
It’s no fun planting rice. Almost hell, in fact, under El Niño that has often spelled crop failure. Negrense farmers—and even non-farmers—is the talk of town, competing with debates of the merits and demerits of presidential candidates.
No wonder. Duterte’s purported millions of pesos in the bank are peanuts compared to expected economic losses in Southeast Asia amounting to over $10 billion.
El Niño might as well be the great equalizer. Crop failures are reported in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand. Where could the country import rice if these countries heavy losses on their rice stocks?
The mighty Mekong Delta is suffering from vastly reduced flow that has left up to 50 percent of arable land vulnerable to salinization that harms crops and can damage farmland.
More than 500,000 people are short of drinking water, while hotels, schools, and hospitals are struggling to maintain clean-water supplies.
Everyone is wishing for rain, including this writer. But I often wonder if the expected onset of rain might mean that the end of El Niño could give birth to its twin sister, a monster La Niña.
That could bring heavy rain to an already flood-prone region, exacerbating agricultural damage and leaving crops vulnerable to disease and pests. Try increase rat infestation, army worm attacks, even a plague of locusts.
“The situation could become even worse if a La Niña event—which often follows an El Niño—strikes toward the end of this year,” said Stephen O’Brien, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and relief.
What’s worse is the attitude of politicians. “What tends to happen is that they (governments) talk about it in the immediate time there is a crisis and then one year later they forget about it and move on,” said a senior Asian economist, adding that “things will get worse.”
The Philippines have experienced the worst typhoon in Yolanda. Yet after the megastorm, it’s back to business as usual. Our politicians are again talking of coal-fired plants, forgetting that these fossil power plants are contributing greenhouses gases that cause extreme weather events.
(bqsanc@yahoo.com)