ILOILO – Five municipalities reported suffering from dwindling water supply. According to the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), Maasin, Lambunao, San Dionisio, Miag-ao, and Bingawan have a “water crisis” due to the El Niño phenomenon.
“Their creeks, rivers and wells are drying up,” said PDRRMO head Jerry Bionat yesterday.
Severely affected areas in these towns are mostly located in mountainous areas, he said.
The PDRRMO made two separate reports on the adverse effects of the El Niño – one on agriculture and the other on water supply.
The El Niño phenomenon is characterized by way-below normal rainfall.
Early this week, Bionat’s office disclosed that damage to this province’s rice farms caused by the El Niño already reached P911 million.
But dwindling water supply is also making people’s lives difficult. In the five municipalities, said Bionat, residents in affected communities have little water for daily domestic use (cooking, washing clothes, taking a bath, drinking, cleaning the house, watering plants, etc.).
He expressed fear that the number of towns reporting a water crisis would further increase.
The drought or dry spell may get worse in April, warned the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration.
Drought is a condition marked by either three consecutive months of way-below normal rainfall or five consecutive months of below-normal rainfall.
Dry spell, on the other, is either two consecutive months of way-below normal rainfall conditions or three consecutive months of below-normal rainfall.
The municipality of Bingawan in the 3rd District is so far the first local government unit to have declared a state of calamity due to El Niño. Its losses in agricultural crops, fisheries and livestock already reached P53,172,976.
According to Bionat, a locality may also declare a state of calamity due to a water crisis but only if 20 percent or more of its population is affected by it.
The local governments of Lambunao and Maasin – both located in the 3rd District, too – have started conferring with the PDRRMO regarding this, said Bionat.
According to Maasin’s Mayor Mariano Malones, of his town’s 50 barangays around 30 are suffering from water shortage.
“True, Maasin’s watershed supplies Iloilo City’s water. But our mountainous villages run out of water most especially during summer,” said Malones.
Maasin’s agriculture is also suffering. Malones said losses already reached P4 million.
For his part, Lambunao’s Mayor Jason Gonzales said a state of calamity may be declared next week.
Seventy-three barangays in Lambunao reported water shortage, said Gonzales.
Contingency measures were taken by the municipality to mitigate the effects of the water crisis. Gonzales said trucks ration water to households. The local government also purchased jetmatic hand pumps for requesting villages.
He said placing the town under a state of calamity will the local government to access its calamity fund.
Agricultural crops like rice, corn and sugarcane are also affected but Gonzales failed to give the exact area of affected farmlands./PN
