THAT DAMNEDEST DAM

The first time I heard about dams and why they are constructed was dated back to those early years of construction of the Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija. My twin brothers, Mario, a Civil Engineer, and Carlito, an Architect, worked at UPRP that commissioned the construction of said dam. Why a whole thriving community with its school building, its church, market, and other fixtures of houses and buildings had to be submerged to give way to a dam was an issue I remember I raised with my brothers. Then my husband, Robert, fresh from college and a new board- passer as Mechanical Engineer, joined them, too. But he spent most of his service in government at Isabela where he joined the pioneering work for the Magat Dam Project. I went with him during one summer vacation and witnessed at Mabitin Village the drilling for rock formation samples on a vast mountain which they studied. I only had a vague idea that those samples would tell if the place was a potential dam site. Before the dam was completed he was transferred to National Irrigation Administration (NIA) in Tarlac.

I just settled with the information that dams would serve as water reservoir, the big source of which is the rainfall, to provide power to irrigate farms, to light houses and buldings and to run machines. So, when the people around the vicinity of the proposed San Roque Dam rejected the project, I wondered how people could be so selfish to part with their lands where the dam would rise. In fact, the plan was first mothballed. Then after sometime, construction was pushed through. NAPOCOR now operates the dam.

The benefits as promised to the Pangasinenses have now turned into a curse. For how else are we going to describe what the dam did to 41 of the 48 towns of Pangasinan submerged in flood waters as an aftermath of Typhoon Pepeng? Proofs of the damage are still ripe in the news. The whole Shoe Mart (SM) building in Rosales was submerged with only the rooftop in full view that put to danger the lives of thousands of stranded mallers in broad daylight. Rescue operation was hampered by strong winds, heavy rains, and the rushing flood. A large portion of a dike in Bayambang collapsed and the angry flood waters wiped out land, houses, properties including people with it. Scenes of rice fields with ready-to-harvest produce were all destroyed and buried in sticky "linang" or mud. My brother, who is on dialysis 3 times a week , missed his sessions at the Nazareth Hospital. All roads leading to the hospital were unpassable for several days. I can't imagine how scared he was the day flood waters rushed inside his house and he and his only companion had to brave the rushing flood that was waist-deep in no time at all. This was in Bacnono, Bautista. Without any form of communication to reach him, my youngest sister Edna who also suffered floods in Cainta, called up NDCC and begged them to locate our brother who must have run to an evacuation center at Bayambang, the nearest town. We were quite relieved to know he was safe at the height of the deluge.

San Roque Dam is the damnedest dam ever heard in this part of the earth if you ask any one Pangasinense. It's no joke to rationalize that what happened happened because Pangasinan is a flood plain and the dam is a catch basin of water spills from 2 other dams, the Binga and Pantabangan of nearby provinces. It's crazy to reason out that excess water must be released for fear of massive damage should the dam cracks or worst, breaks. Never mind if they had to unload more than 6,000 cubic meters of angry waters per second. It's out of this world to say now that they didn't do anything wrong because they had followed normal procedures- no lapses, no negligence.

The local PAGASA officials added salt to injury when they said they have no modern equipment to gauge the amount of rainfall a typhoon will unload, giving the NAPOCOR less of guilt for its neglectful timing of release of the excess water. Pangasinenses will never be able to recover from their personal loses. They will never found peace and security in their own homes at anytime of the night and day. The only best thing they could do is to lift it all up to the Father Almighty, to pray that miracles may still happen. I really commesserate with the townspeople of Rosales, Villasis, Calasiao, Bayambang, Bautista, Sta. Barbara, San Fabian the worst hit towns. Broken lives of broken people- when will all these end?

Here in Lingayen, we are used to floods coming in the wake of storms and during heavy downpour. Like the rest of the province that experience these floods, we have seemed to have built our resolve to live with it because floods don't happen all days all weeks all months. They are occasional. With or without warnings especially about dams opening their spillways, we are ready for these events. But not in the tragedy that recently happened.

The flash floods came in the dead of the night while most people were in bed, probably wishing that the strong winds wouldn't blow off their roofs or topple their houses. Before nightfall I already handed the key to my parents' house to one of my relatives who are regular evacuees in the vacant house with instructions that they should transfer early in the night. I knew that few from among our neighbors were asleep. The young perhaps were tucked in bed by their parents who had to keep watch for the night. It was around 11 pm. When I woke up for the bathroom, I saw the old house with lights on so I knew they were there for any eventuality. Then I heard someone knocked at my front door begging to have their tricycles be brought to my garage because the flood was rising and-fast. When I looked out in the dark, I gasped at the sparkling rushing water that had already entered the old house. I texted them and instructed that they go to the second floor for safety.

My house is built on higher grounds but the first sight of the rolling floodwaters and the muffled cries in the dead of the night from everywhere, got on my nerves. I almost panicked. My daughter, Pot, left the day before on orders by his boss in their Lingayen main office to assess the situation in their branch office in Marikina that was also devastated by Typhoon Ondoy. She asked two children of my house help to join me during the night while she was away from home. I commandeered the two sleeping children aged 8 and 12, to transfer in one of the rooms upstairs. Then I went back to the living room snatching away from the outlet all light appliances - electric fans, DVD player, radio, etc., and scooped anything I could carry in my hands for deposit upstairs. I just left everything I couldn't carry like the TV, the ref. Silly, wasn't I?

I switched on all the lights outside my house to have a better view of what was coming, looking from time to time at the water level in my garage in front and in the service area I call dirty kitchen, at the back of the house. It was a blessing that the power was not cut off all night. All of a sudden I couldn't remember at what time was the low tide to take place. It was my personal calculation of the high and low tides that used to help me ease my anxiety. I settled with my rosary in hand and prayed not for me alone, but for all those in my immediate neighborhood whose houses were often destroyed after calamities of that nature. I was sleepless just like everyone in the area which is flood- prone.

There was no let up of the heavy downpour all night. The thought that another disaster was coming made me long for the break of day. It was the longest night. I thought of my Kuya Ben who was also alone in his house with only his helper. My sister-in-law left for Abu Dhabi to minister to their daughter Diana who was to deliver her first baby, a week ago before the floods . I was uneasy knowing that his place, Bacnono in Bautista, is a flood area, too. I felt so helpless, and I felt we were worlds apart.

At break of day I watched for signs that the water level was decreasing. But the waters seemed to stay put- neither rising nor falling. I learned that in the basement room of my parents' house, it was waist-deep. In the living room and the kitchen, it was knee-high. In the front yard outside I saw children cruising on a rubber boat in the thigh-high flood waters. The level of water stayed on for three days, increasing a little at high tides. It was the first time that the flood refused to recede toward the nearby river. I knew right then and there that more destructions happened the whole of Pangasinan. And I was right.

Why can't we raise our defiance over San Roque Dam? Why can't we question the NAPOCOR? Who will help the Pangasinenses air their gripes?

Photo by gull@cyberspace.org

DISASTERS: SIGNS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ?

Disasters such as typhoons, flash floods, landslides, etc., that are occurring with alarming frequency here in our country and abroad are suspicious signs that climate on earth has been changing. During my school days, I learned from my books in science that Scientists all over the earth prophesied a bleak future headed toward numerous baffling phenomena about the Earth warming up and cooling down. And true enough because not long ago, even the man on the street knew about the El Nino and La Nina phenomena. When the climate or weather patterns on earth is unfavorable say for instance, the amount of rainfall decreases, food production will be affected. Many people will starve. The heating up of the earth's temperature beyond the normal will melt the polar ice caps. Sea level will rise and coastal areas will be under water.

Let me start to review our basic knowledge about climate for the youth who are the heirs of this earth. Climate in a particular place doesn't change quickly. It is because it is influenced by permanent factors like altitude (or the height of a place above sea level), latitude ( or the imaginary lines that run parallel to the equator going north or south), bodies of water, wind system, and amount of rainfall or snowfall a particular area receives for a longer period of time. Climate differs from weather as the latter is that condition of the sky that changes from time to time, from day to day, influenced by cloud formation, water evaporation, location, temperature, wind speed and direction, and rainfall. Climate is the average of all weather conditions prevailing for a longer period of time.

The Philippines sits in the tropics in the Northern Hemisphere near the equator. Due to such location, the country experiences two distinct seasons- the wet season and the dry season. The Philippines has a tropical climate- not very hot, not very cool. In places where it is sunny and dry for months, the climate is dry. Areas that experience longer period of rainy days are described to have wet climate. Elementary grades pupils are very much aware of the following types of Philippine climate, to wit:(reference-Into the Future:Science and Health for Grade Six)

The first type of Philippine climate is open to southwest monsoon. It is described as dry for 6 months (from November to April) and wet for another 6 months (from May to October). The sample areas with this climate are Metro Manila, Baguio, Western Luzon, Panay, Mindoro, Negros Island and Northwest Palawan.

The second type is open to northeast and southwest monsoons, described as without dry season with maximum rainfall from November to January. Some provinces covered are Catanduanes, Daet, Sorsogon, Samar, Eastern Mindanao, Camarines Norte, Quezon, Leyte.

The third type is open to southwest monsoon but is protected in part from the northeast monsoon. Central Cebu, Isabela, Nueva Viscaya, Southern Quezon, Masbate, most of Eastern Negros, Palawan, and parts of Northeastern Mindanao are areas covered by this type.

The fourth experiences rainfall throughout the year and is evenly distributed. This is felt in Davao, Batanes, Northeastern Luzon, Western part of Camarines Norte, Eastern Mindoro and Marinduque.

It is clear that the Philippines experiences four types of climate depending on the amount of rainfall received by a particular area during a particular period of time during the year. However, today, the statistical data above seemed to have changed. I can say this because Western Luzon where Pangasinan, my province, is located, is experiencing wet days even as far as the month of December which is supposedly a dry month in this area. The rains and worse the typhoons are highly unpredictable nowadays. At present times we have more incoming wet All Saints' Days and Christmases in November and December, respectively. If this is not due to climate change, then what is this all about?

Scientists all over the world agree that there is tendency of climate to change. Why there is climate change is an earth issue which these people have been studying, searching for categorical answers all their lives. Scientists have already unearthed evidences since 1940 that the Northern Hemisphere has been cooling off and that the Southern Hemisphere shows signs of warming up but they simply don't understand why. They tend to differ in their views also as to whether the people's activities affect climate.

For example, burning just anything on earth that produces heavy smoke releases great amount of carbon dioxide in the air. This gas popularly known as greenhouse gas acts like glass in a greenhouse that traps heat and retains it longer causing worldwide rise of temperature. While some of these geniuses believe that strengthened greenhouse effect cause ice caps in the north and south poles to melt, others think otherwise. They say that a stronger greenhouse effect will increase moisture in the air and clouds will form. The more clouds the better because clouds will reflect incoming sunlight back to space keeping the earth's temperature in a balance. Excessive dust from farmlands are also said to increase the greenhouse effect that warms the climate, others say that excess dust will reflect sunlight and cool the earth.

To deflect whatever greenhouse gas may cause, however, specially the negative effects, our education sector is bent on making school children aware of the phenomenon of climate change and teaching them their possible contributions to save Mother Earth. Hence, many projects were launched decades ago to address the ill- effects of ecological imbalance in our climate. There were the Sagip-Pasig Movement, Clean and Green Campaign, Proper Garbage Disposal Management, Tree Planting, Adopt-a-Tree Program, and a lot more. The government has been acting on bills passed to protect the environment that have something to do with illegal logging, reforestation, pollution, and other sorts of earth-saving programs..

I, for one, suspects that the disasters that recently devastated a big portion of our country from north to south, are results of climate change and human negligence combined.Too many wind-related disasters like typhoons, tornadoes, hurricanes, cyclones, and storms happening the world over are probable proofs that the world's wind system has changed. Floods that cause landslides and other land falls are possible evidences also of either too much rainfall or a rise in sea water level due to melting ice caps in the high seas and oceans or the two circumstances combined. People in government, those manning the weather forecasts, and those who are identified with dam operations have much to explain why typhoons of Pepeng's nature caught them with their pants down. The damage has been done. They must refrain from this finger-pointing. But they must retrace their policies and their future actions must redeem their negligences or incapacities for the people's sake.

Whatever happened to all those high-fallotin' government programs and projects? Are they just the "ningas-kugon" types now relegated to the backseats? I saw on TV the Senate inquiry directed to the officials of the San Roque Dam here in Pangasinan over their celebrated oversight or negligence in their procedure of releasing excess rain waters that destroyed infrastructures such as concrete dikes and bridges, washed away houses, cost many lives, destroyed plantation and production, overflowed fishponds, caused landslides or landfalls. After all, the people in the neighboring towns who strongly rejected the construction of the dam were right. Why the project was mothballed for sometime due to pressures and construction pushed through after a lull, is to me very suspicious. Now everybody is pointing fingers to everybody but themselves.

We are doomed forever here in Pangasinan, one of the so-called flood plains. Lingayen, my hometown, will eternally become a downstream spillway to Lingayen Beach. Disasters in the future like this first of its kind flooding will irreversibly be blamed to climate change aggravated by heavy rainfalls, never by human errors in government and the NAPOCOR who operates the dams. And before the damage to lives and properties are justifiably rectified, if ever it happens, people will have no more use of their lands. Those who probably can afford to leave their place will relocate and be saved from their nightmares but the least among them, those without money to buy land in safer place, those who are only able to put up houses of light materials, shanties from scraps , on a land probably inherited from their parents, will wait for their own destiny- an obscure one. Life to them is a daily survival from the elements , courtesy of climate change and corruption in government.

Photo by ItzaFineDay