Power of the People for Change: The Greatest Scientist of the Philippines: Dr. Pel...

Power of the People for Change: The Greatest Scientist of the Philippines: Dr. Pel...: Everyone, let us acclaim and celebrate the first Filipino and the only one out of two achievers in the world to be conferred the Doctorate...

Power of the People for Change: The Greatest Scientist of the Philippines: Dr. Pel...

Power of the People for Change: The Greatest Scientist of the Philippines: Dr. Pel...: Everyone, let us acclaim and celebrate the first Filipino and the only one out of two achievers in the world to be conferred the Doctorate...

Power of the People for Change: RCBC Fires Maia Dequito

Power of the People for Change: RCBC Fires Maia Dequito: Recently, RCBC fired Maia Santos Dequito and Angela Torres. Ms. Torres is crying foul and complains  “harassment from RCBC top brass.” ...

Power of the People for Change: Philippine Telcos Are Duping Filipinos, This Is Ho...

Power of the People for Change: Philippine Telcos Are Duping Filipinos, This Is Ho...: Part 2 of a series In our previous post , we complained that sometimes the speed of Smart Communications Internet is just plain zero, zi...

The Philippines: Irresoluble Problem of Floods

by the Resource Recovery Movement, Center for Human and Society

In the recent period, floods plagued a considerable area, encompassing broad sections across the globe.

Heavy recent flooding in India and Serbia, China, Japan among many other areas around the world

With heavy inundations such as these that can often kill with their own sheer power by drowning, is there still a need for the water to be poisonous, toxic and very much hazardous to health or even deadly enough to kill?

In the Philippines, not the Secretary of the Department of National Defense now a bit too advanced in years unlike many past defense secretaries who braved calamities and got wet and dirty on the ground, but the helmsman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) is a mite too busy nowadays. The chief is extremely tied up in many corners that at most times the poor disaster response executive does not even know where to plant his foot next.

Yet it is an inescapable Catch-22 situation. If the new chief of the Philippine Office of Civil Defense and the Secretariat of the NDRRMC follows the examples of his bosses, just stay put and let things unveil all by themselves, the people will be angry.

If the NDRRMC head appears very mobile and busy, the people are still not going to be appeased. They will be just as angry anyway. No option is a better one, even that of balancing between not doing anything and making an effort to be hyperactive.

A senseless new tragedy most recently hit the Philippines - not so much a tragedy as thousands of helpless citizens getting killed.

The powerful storm caused a maritime vessel Maharlika II in Cebu to drown, leaving as many as more than one hundred casualties. As of this writing, 70 persons are missing due to the tragedy.

All over the nation: Floods and landslides, destroyed crops, dead farm animals

ruined houses, buildings, vital installations and much more other forms of damage

A really sensible government will take every means to prevent people from getting caught in floods. Sadly enough, this is never true in the Philippines and not in many places around the world. They will simply snort: Expensive solutions! No one specially me needs them! So they let whole communities drown or suffer getting submerged waist or neck-deep in murky, life-threatening floodwaters

Both children and adults brave the waters in floods. No one puts the fear in their hearts that doing so is extremely dangerous to their health and the effects may only be felt after a long time.

 

Posted Under Themes:

#MarioPH

#Fong-Wong #Fung-Wong

#Flood

#Philippines

#FloodControl

#RescuePH

#Rescue

Read more from here.

Philippines update. Saving Lives: Who needs FWEMSAR?

For a long time, it has been the conventional wisdom to expose skilled, highly trained and properly vetted personnel to extreme dangers - sometimes equal or greater than that which confronts counter-terrorist or counter-drug operations elements. Yet this is the job of Rescue, or more aptly as it is called, SAR - Search and Rescue.

We believe in the significance of SAR. However, for the benefit of both the party being rescued and the rescuer, we stand in our conviction that beyond post-disaster search and rescue or SAR during the incumbency of a disaster, it would be a positive addition to the design to introduce Forewarning and Early Measures.

The United States of America for example has the SAR Task Force.  Under the SARTF are units for instance such as the United States Air Force Para Rescue. Brazil's Ministry of Defense has Operation Rescue under the defense ministry's Subsidiary Actions. China Coast Guard - among others - undertake SAR operations within the bounds of the People's Republic of China. Taiwan has its own CMC Taiwan Rescue.

In the Philippines, in 1990-1991, the authors were requested to form a plan for the Reactivation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Forest Ranger Battalion. Together with the plan, also submitted were other proposals relevant to disaster response.

The reactivation of the Forest Ranger Battalion was not approved at the Department of National Defense. A good number of the proposals detailing the pressing need for modernization of defense assets, equipment and technologies, for making disaster and emergency response more effective and efficient were adopted as the department's position by then Secretary Fidel Valdez Ramos.

Perennial Problem of Siltation: Northern and Central Luzon, et al Philippines

Among many other issues, the problems of killer flash floods, destruction of marine ecosystems such as fish kills, deteriorating marine life, low fish farming harvests, red tide, drought - scarcity of water supply, desertification among too many others are often caused by siltation - in many instances coupled with the unchecked deforestation of highlands from where surface runoff water come in large droves during heavy rain.

Sometimes, as in the case in the Mindoro and Ormoc tragedies in the past were countless people lost their lives, compounding the floods are log and debris stampede.

The stampede part is the most lethal particularly when it occurs at the time when people are asleep and have no defense nor countermeasure to rely upon as their physical safety all of a sudden totally goes south.

SiltationFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

Siltation is the pollution of water by fine particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments, and to the increased accumulation (temporary or permanent) of fine sediments on bottoms where they are undesirable. Siltation is most often caused by soil erosion or sediment spill. 

Sometimes siltation is called sediment pollution, although that is an undesirable term since it is ambiguous, and can also be used to refer to a chemical contamination of sediments accumulated on the bottom, or pollutants bound to sediment particles. Siltation is the preferred term for being unambigiuous, even if not entirely stringent since it also includes other particle sizes than silt.

In recent time, while natural causes still figure as a factor in siltation, human-caused siltation-sedimentation has been observed to occur in alarming levels. More impending man-made catastrophes are expected in this sense, for which early solutions are required to at least lessen the future impact of societal and individual losses arising from simple siltation.

In Europe, marine ecosystems are taken seriously.

Tyne Rivers Trust - Proud Guardians of England's Rivers

Siltation and pressures on river habitats

The problem on global scale

The intensification of agricultural activities is a recognised contributory factor to the current rapid rate of soil erosion on a global scale. As well as being a valuable resource, topsoil also contains nutrients which can negatively alter the balance of freshwater ecosystems. Erosion by rivers is a natural process and the presence of sediment of all sizes is necessary to support healthy freshwater ecosystems. When fine sediment is over-supplied it can infill the spaces between river gravels and pebbles and lead to problems such as the loss in interspatial habitat, binding of polluting molecules and the de-oxygenation of the substrate. Siltation in rivers is intrinsically linked to the erosion of topsoil by wind and rain action but accelerated (we use the term ‘aggravated’) by land use and land management practices.

Siltation is considered by some quarters to be a positive phenomenon. This is obviously in reference to the issue that highly silted bodies of water can profitably be exploited for mineral extraction or in certain cases quarrying of a fairly high quality of black sand - magnetite.

In our time, this could be more hype than truth. Perhaps, thousands and millions of years ago, the usefulness of silt was such that it increased the size and breadth of islands, made extremely deep rivers or water bodies in unfathomable ravines more shallow and therefore less hazardous to both passive and motile life forms, among its other usefulness. Not anymore.

Too many countries today suffer from unchecked siltation. This needs to be corrected. As a matter of fact, the hydro unit of the world's combines like the United Nations, ought to provide special attention to the hazards posed by siltation to human communities and the enclaves of other living species.

United Nations warned of the forthcoming scarcity in food and water supply by the time the world population reaches more or less ten billion.

Yet the reality is, water shortage and related concerns have plagued the globe since several decades ago and continues to pester human populations to the present and long unto the future.

A special case that needs serious attention and having a peculiar nature is that of Pangasinan in the North of Luzon, Philippines, in relation to Zambales and other parts of Central Luzon also in the Philippines.

A special concern was raised with the national government since 1992. The advocacy was kept alive and in 2006 the government was once more reminded of the problem. Up to this time, piecemeal solutions have been offered but none of those will help solve the problem for the long term.

A scientist from Germany inspired the advocacy to undertake seeding in the high ground in Eastern Pangasinan areas that border La Union and Ilocos farther north. after conducting studies at site, the German found out there were several billions of tons of ash deposit in the upper, mountainous portions of eastern pangasinan

It was notable during onsite ocular survey in 1995 that heavy siltation, sedimentation of La Union's bordering towns with eastern Pangasinan made even the banks, the facing walls and bottoms of big rivers literally turn into kabuki white, as if the rivers were newly minted giant marble-tiled swimming pools.

Pangasinan, Zambales and many other nearby areas lost so much flowing water for its irrigation lines that for a grains, corn and vegetable growing province is severe punishment.

Much income suddenly was unattainable but the question was where the government was in all of these. Where the banks were that were supposed to serve as a fallback in terms of economic resources. No one helped. The administration of the late Madam Corazon Aquino did not even go through the motions of at least attempting to study and correct the problem.

From 1992 following the Pinatubo explosion to the present, Sta. Barbara suffers from flash flooding making house appliances float inside homes or onto the flooded streets even from small rains. One can only imagine having #Ondoy-like rain in that area, or having a perpetual #Yolanda in the vicinity.

The greatest problem right now is having an imbalanced chief whip at the helm who suffers from a psychological attack each time there is water or even the mention of water.

The advocacy to seed the  higher ground of Eastern Pangasinan in its borders with the Ilocos Region, Zambales and other parts of Central Luzon Region was to mitigate continuous and life-threatening flooding that occur in Central Pangasinan and Zambales.

Only a few meager months after starting the advocacy in 1992 to prevent billion-ton lahar deposits in Eastern Pangasinan from causing havoc, more than 10 barangays in Sta. Barbara, Bayambang and Calasiao were literally erased from the map. This is still going on and on and on and residents in Sta. Barbara have started owning means for water transport like bancas, canoes and rafts - among others.

The need for preventive measures has been urged at that time in 1992 yet from the late Mrs. Aquino's administration up to the present nothing is literally being pursued to resolve this problem.

Several administrations past and in this one the incumbent appears to be afraid of stepping upon water or confronting a flood or even hearing about it being discussed in one's presence.  This is evident in the excruciatingly long delay in acting upon the suffering of the victims of Yolanda - among many other flood-related disasters in the Visayas and Mindanao.

The allocation or misallocation - at it were - of monies, grandstanding investigations, speeches and press conferences, unproductive Cabinet meetings and politicking are easily on top of the National Agenda and state activity but not positive and constructive measures.

Severe water shortage is expected with the forecast of a coming El Niño phenomenon a few months from today and people expect pro active measures from the government.

The past Summits made on water had not taken the gargantuan problem of siltation into the equation:  much less that which had been caused by a 1990s volcanic explosion. The Philippine scientific community and the leading decision makers might not consider it as significant but the hazards double by the hour, day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year.

It will run counter to sensibility to allow people to die and drown in dirty flood waters - particularly in Metro Manila where waste management is not treated seriously.

If the leaders show real concern for constituents, the problem mentioned above will be resolved gradually over time. Yet the action ought to start yesterday and last week, last month.

During the advocacy for the establishment of an inter-agency Safety agency in the time of Mrs. Aquino, safety agency creation was proposed and subsequently re-proposed several times over that Malacañang asked if there was a shortage of jobs that the proponent was trying to create jobs for one's employment.

What was approved by Congress into law did not and cannot have any benefit for addressing environment hazards such as siltation, but it was supposed to do some good for the transport sector:  the Republic Act creating the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) under the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

(Yet the law became useless, since then Budget Secretary, now deceased, the late Ms. Emilia Boncodin, threw the president-signed law out of her office saying she had no money for its implementation. As a result, Sen. Rodolfo Biazon now Congressman, took the bill from the garbage can and refiled the same today.)

It is pointed out that from the view of a safety advocate the following are observed :

1. Flood mitigation measures already initiated years ago by Centre di Humanis et Societas, Inc. in cooperation with the Pangasinan NGO Network, Inc. in a MOA with the Provincial Government. Except that our NGO was a self-financed affair and PNGONet also did not have any funds on its own. The MOA covered seeding, treeplanting, other related activities that could redound to increasing the capacity of the province’s ecosystem to eliminate flooding. This MOA between the Provincial Government and our NGOs group was in response to the problem that the siltation and downloading of billions of metric tons of lahar / ash fall deposits in the Eastern Pangasinan area and other areas that similarly received these deposits from the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991 were perceived in 1992 to be a future source of looding / flash flooding in Pangasinan.

The MOA was also in response to the threat of Pangasinan’s possible desertification within 25 years that was forecast in 1983 by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). This was unnecessarily and unfortunately accelerated by the Pinatubo eruption.

2. The occurrence of flooding and the destruction of homes, farms, roads and other infrastructure by floods as well as loss of life need pro-active counter measures

3.  The perennial going away of roads and infrastructure can holistically be resolved by engaging various sectors (at the behest of Malacañang) to finally implement seeding in Eastern Pangasinan's higher regions to stop / prevent the flooding at the root of the problem: the billion ton lahar / ash deposit at the mountain ranges bordering and also within Pangasinan. There are numerous other benefits for advocating this for future construction projects and other economic and social activities in the concerned area. 

In the mid 1990s, enormous portions of lahar thought to be part of the hills/mountains in the town Sison, Pangasinan fell down and reshaped riverine systems, destroyed the manner of cropping of rice and corn in these areas and the banks did not have it in their agenda to lend the farmers money.

SM Shoemart has had to close down one of its malls in the same area due to the same sad experience from flooding it suffered during Ondoy in Metro Manila. The SM corporation and other like-minded members of the private sector can band together to help addressing these problems and find the correct solutions - not only in North and Central Luzon, but in other parts of the country as well.

This private sector participation, is most strongly encouraged since like our group that is not part of the public sector, and belong to the private sector, have always sought for as many other hands to work with in this area.

We experienced first hand what the effects were when the flash floods started coming to Sta. Barbara, other municipalities and inundated the Bayambang Rivers with ash.

From all of these, it may be gleaned that a team from the public sector and even participants coming from the private sector will do best to assemble and study the merits of proposing to one or two Malacañang Cabinet Clusters to provide a solution to the perennial flooding / flash flooding in Pangasinan and nearby areas.  The problem applies to Region III as well or any other area so affected.

A simple weed seeding project, using light planes and helicopters for high ground areas, tree planting for mid-high ground zones and more tree planting for the lower zones - among other interventions to minimize siltation is in order.

These other engineering interventions may also be applied to the problem from a more holistic perspective.

A different, more innovative and forward-looking civil works paradigm may however be used in the light of this proposed integrated problem resolution project. It will cost millions, even billions but it will have a more long-lasting effect. While the chief executive may be afraid of water or flood, it will be this regime's legacy if the issue that was neglected during the term of Madam Cory Aquino is finally addressed today.

International cooperation is also encouraged. the US has been angling to return to Subic and China is in particular enamored with Central Luzon and Northern Luzon regions. Japan could also extend cooperation along with the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany and the whole European Union - specially since the solution under question here emanated from the findings of a scientist from Germany that conducted a comprehensive study on the Mt. Pinatubo explosion.

Siltation needs to be given better, more serious attention.

In the long run, as we have explained here, the benefits in terms of savings, securing life and property are enormous and astounding. If this is not clear and the concerned individuals will not realize it yet after viewing this article, time has run faster for all of us - not only for Pangasinan, Zambales and others in that vicinity.

Some Related Readings:

United Nations Sponsored Study on Dams, Siltation (download document in Word format here)

InternationalRivers.org

International Rivers on YouTube

Silenced Rivers: Ecology and Politics of Large Dams

UK HydroCoop

Agro and Farming - Bangladesh Blog

Lindorm Florida USA

Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum - Siltation

In relation to fish farming - or aquaculture the following site is recommended:

Wye and Usk Foundation
Siltation
A Wye tributary smothered by sedimentation
River restoration works helping to trap silt in the bank rather than it damaging gravels
Silt is a granular material derived from soil or rock of a grain size between sand and clay. It may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface "water body" (Water Framework Directive speak for river, stream, lake or groundwater source). It may also exist as soil deposited on a river or lake bed. Siltation is very bad news for our rivers and many of their inhabitants. With faster run-offs from forestry, increased grazing pressures and, typically, potato, strawberry or maize crops, fine sediment loads on some streams smother the bed and kill off invertebrates and fish eggs, resulting in reduced spawning success or abandonment by fish. The fine sediment loading of our rivers has trebled since 1980 and in the most severely affected streams egg survival has been reduced to 0%. Much of this damage is avoidable and our knowledge is increasing of the whereabouts of vulnerable sites and which land use practices put the rivers at the greatest risk.

Following on from more than a decade of leaflet drops and advisory booklets, the "Catchment Sensitive Farming Initiative" aims to mitigate damage in the most vulnerable catchments such as Lugg, Ithon and Garren but it too has the disadvantage of being only voluntary and has limited funding for remedial work. Cross compliance is built into the current grant scheme, whereby grants may be reduced or removed in the event of bad agricultural practices but it lacks the will for enforcement. 

The Foundation continues to be alert to the damage caused by siltation and fencing out stock remains an absolute priority where it is a problem, as is preventing and repairing erosion. The subsequent restoration of natural widths (i.e. narrower) that result from fencing enable streams to resist more effectively the worst effects of siltation.

To summarise, silt affects aquatic life is in several ways: 

• Reduced rate of egg survival
• Spawning gravels become compacted
• Invertebrate types and numbers are reduced
• Acts as a vehicle for certain pesticides and phosphates
• Read more from here