Was Duterte told of alternative to contentious Kaliwa dam?

Instead of a 73-meter-high dam that will dispossess thousands of tribe folk and despoil the Sierra Madres, a seven-meter weir can suffice. Undisruptive, the latter is cheaper and quicker to put up. No need for a Chinese loan at stiff terms; a Japanese firm will build it at no cost to government. It will urgently solve Mega Manila’s need for alternative water source.

The weir was proposed two administrations ago in 2009. The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage Authority had given the go signal. For unknown reasons later MWSS boards shelved it. As water began to fall short, Japanese proponent Global Utility Construction Corp. tried since 2017 to get an appointment with President Rody Duterte to present its plan anew. Cabinet members were approached, as they are responsible for giving the President full info from which to decide for the greatest good.

Has the firm been given the chance to be heard in Malacañang? 

The question begs asking as Duterte sounds misinformed. He is saying that a dam is “the last resort” to avert crisis. Time is running out. In three months there will be another summer water shortage, like last April. If taps dry up, residents of the capital region will blame Duterte for inaction. Aides who have his and the people’s best interest at heart must brief him at once.

Steel and concrete, the weir will be spanned upstream of Kaliwa River in Quezon. Overflow safely will be diverted onto a water treatment plant. Construction will take 36 months. Forests and ancestral domains will be preserved. With 550 million liters per day (MLD), the build-transfer-operate project adequately will augment the old La Mesa reservoir. Concessionaires will draw water to distribute – under strict MWSS regulation.

A dam will take 56 months to erect. It will evict 400 Dumagat families from the site, and imperil 6,000 tribal homes with flooding. The Tinipak white rock natural formations, falls and park will be wiped out. Perched on the Infanta Fault, the dam can break and wash away General Nakar town below. Fifty-two NGOs and religious leaders oppose any environment clearance, especially if not by the affected folks’ free informed choice. All those for 600 MLD.

Dam construction will be P12.5 billion. There are hidden costs, however. A 12-km access road alone to operate it will take P6.2 billion. Mega Manila’s two concessionaires must build separate water treatments, another P40 billion, in Tanay and Teresa, Rizal. That’s P58.7 billion in all, that taxpayers nationwide and consumers in Mega Manila must repay. The P12.5-billion China loan terms include unconstitutional surrender of Philippine patrimonial assets, like offshore oil and gas, in case of default. China can dictate the construction pace and even force a default through the Chinese builder. State auditors had discovered bid rigging among three Chinese companies.

The weir will cost P21.7 billion. Included is the treatment facility and a 16-km aqueduct, less invasive than the dam’s 23 km. GUCC will advance the cost, to be recovered from concessionaires’ sales.

End of home cooking

Have you noticed too? People are home-cooking less these days. More often they eat or order out. Many restaurants, chain or specialty, now deliver. Independent motorcycle deliverers even hang out nearby. Convenience as the new currency is very evident in dining. No need to work the kitchen then wash plate and pans, so more time for work or leisure.

Global stats may apply to local trends. Like, in the US millennials frequent eateries and snack bars 30 percent more than any other generation. Elsewhere persons aged 25-40 spend less time than their olds preparing food at home. They’re in the kitchen only 13 minutes a day or, summed up, an hour less each week than their Gen-X seniors. In groceries they buy more prepared meals, pasta, and sweets. Less millennials, 64 percent, claim adeptness in cooking than Gen X, 72 percent, and Baby Boomers, 76 percent. Many of them are unfamiliar with kitchenware, like different kinds and uses of knives or the garlic press.

In Philippine cities kiosks abound selling brown-bagged meals. San Miguel Corp.’s Magnolia division is gearing up to retail favorite Filipino viands like adobo and mechado, nilaga and sinigang, pares and prito. Grain silos, contract-grown broilers, hogs and cows, and sales outlets are being readied. Meals ready-to-eat will be another SMC innovation, says president Ramon S. Ang. Other biggies expectedly will follow suit.

Time was when home-cooking supposedly was beneficial for five reasons: cheaper, cleaner, healthier, tastier, satisfying. Robot chefs, bulk discounted commissaries, sanitary mass production, nutrition fact disclosures, handy containers and utensils, and home deliveries, among others, have overtaken the five pluses. Why bother to cook at home when the celebrity chef can whip up a diet-feast of mushroom sisig, cashew nut cheese, and cauliflower rice – fast, affordable, suited exactly to one’s palate, with certified ingredients. The family or gang ends up happy with the quality time, so long as not stalled by traffic.

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