Last Monday, the news about the rains spawned by the storm Dante developed rather unexpectedly. Initially, the weather bulletin alerted us to a weather disturbance in a category just a little higher than a depression. Even as it was forecast to become a storm, Dante was earlier reported to be located few hundred kilometers east of Davao region and projected to move west. I thought that in that trajectory, we would just feel the typhoon’s less harmful trough. But, as it turned out, it moved west northwest and dumped unbelievable volume of water in our region.
While Dante’s winds did not howl the way super typhoon Yolanda did in 2013, it produced flash floods, in devastating category. As it came to pass, we saw huge volume of water uselessly drain to seas. Along its terrible wake, no trickle of potable water was saved. This is the off tangent plot of this column today.
Before Dante came, the farm lands in Cebu City’s mountain barangays got parched by an extended dry spell. I imagined the situation in unirrigated agricultural fields in neighboring places to be similar. I speak whereof I know because i had difficulty watering the plants in my small farm. The trickle of the river nearby even if patiently pumped by hard working farmers could hardly wet the soil they toiled. My neighbors had to make do fetching water from the two open wells that i dug in my small property both for personal hygiene and for their plants.
Water supply is a huge problem of Cebu City. It has been so for decades now. In fact, I remember vividly a consultative meeting organized by then Senator John H Osmena (now deceased) held at Sacred Heart Center for the very purpose of his announcing that his office was looking for ways to address the problem. I was then a city councilor (was it 1989 yet?) and i recall having sprung unabashedly from my seat to applaud the senator despite that my lowly membership in a party marked the difference of our political color. It seemed that nothing developed from that meeting as the senator’s announcement led nowhere. Our water problem has been multiplied many times over even considering just one factor, population. When that Osmeña meeting was held, there were about 220 thousand voters compared to today’s about 600 thousand.
There is a large valley in Barangay Lusaran which can be converted into a huge dam. If we just understand the Visayan word Lusad, to mean to go down, we can right away conclude its viability as a big water basin. Ambuklao and Pantangan Dams in Luzon can serve as models. This Lusaran dam in the north district of Cebu City, when built, will be a counterpart to the Jaclupan dam in Talisay City which is among the major sources of our water. I just wonder why none of our leaders has begun to explore this water source.
It is a massive project that requires national funding. I lamented that our late congressman failed to initiate this important undertaking in his 30 years in office. Realistically speaking, the need to for national allocation was necessary because up to this year, such a huge budgetary need is beyond the capability of the city. But, thanks to the Mandanas doctrine, the city coffers shall be immensely boosted in 2022. While the figures are yet to be calculated, I surmise that billions of pesos from national tax revenues will be the city’s portion. The additional share going to the city from nationally collected taxes as directed by the Supreme Court in that Mandanas case shall enable the city government to start conceptualizing and begin building this dam. It is thus timely for our city leaders to conceive of this important Lusaran dam project. The city officialdom has no choice.