(Continued from yesterday)
IT IS already a known fact that China is building a second giant dam ostensibly for purposes of power generation, but we could reasonably guess that it is also for irrigation purposes. At the outset, we could say that they are doing that for their own energy security and their own food security, and that is none of our business.
That is not the case, however, because that second giant dam could potentially block off the water that usually goes to the Mekong River, and that is a possibility that could threaten the water supply for the irrigation needs of the entire Mekong Delta. How I wish that that is the problem of the countries in Indochina and that is none of our business, but the fact is, these are the same countries that are exporting rice to us.
Halfway across the world, a similar problem is already happening in Africa, as Ethiopia is blocking off the water that usually goes to Egypt via the Nile River. Of course, Egypt could always claim that the Nile River is theirs, but it does not take much for Ethiopia to make a counter claim that the water comes from them.
Likewise, the Indochinese countries could claim that the Mekong River is theirs, but on the other hand, China could make a counter claim that the water comes from them. Only a few years ago, many security experts have already predicted that the next world war could be triggered by conflicts over water rights and water supplies. That might just happen, but the war could also be about the food supplies that depend on these water sources.
As it is now, we are not yet experiencing shortages of water for irrigation purposes, even if we are lagging behind in building the infrastructure that would deliver irrigation water to our rice farms.
That is definitely a problem, but aside from that, we are also facing the problem of rising sea levels, a problem that will cause the permanent flooding of many coastal areas. For sure, huge areas of rice lands will be covered by either saline water or brackish water, and this will definitely affect our rice production. This is the reason why I have been promoting the cultivation of saline rice varieties. As a matter of fact, saline rice production has been successfully tried and tested by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
Despite having excellent irrigation facilities, Israel has disallowed the cultivation of rice, citing the reason that it is not economically efficient, because it requires too much water. That is a choice that they had to make, because of their scarce water resources.
Instead of planting rice, they planted higher value crops and fruits such as oranges. From the money that they earned from these alternative harvests, they simply bought the rice that they need from the other countries. That is a choice that we could not make, because rice is a political issue for us here. Besides, we do not have problems (not yet) with water scarcity. In our case, we have no choice but to aim for self-sufficiency in rice production, not only for economic reasons, but also for political reasons./PN
