By Joel B. Belinan
These past few days we experienced some rains in some areas of the Cordillera while almost all areas in the lowlands are suffering from tremendous heat and drought. Funny thing is that just a few days ago a tropical storm named Dante passed through our country. Coupled with this is the news of rotational brownouts which is the result of low power generation caused by low water levels in almost all our hydro- electric plants.
Of course, all these are parts of the effect of climate change or in simpler words imbalance in our echo-system or, simply, environmental degradation. This reminds me again of the importance of the Cordillera watersheds that has never been given importance by the national government. This despite the fact that under the Regional Development Council’s (RDC) approved Development Plan, the Cordillera is the Watershed Cradle of North Luzon. Due to the Cordillera Region’s high elevation and location, it could indeed become the resource base of the North. However, the declaration as a watershed cradle remains just that, a declaration.
Way back 14 years ago there were some efforts to apply the brakes on the massive forest conversion to farmlands in our remaining forested areas in the Cordillera especially those located in the Central Cordillera mountains particularly those just below the Mount Data Plateau. Thanks to the passionate coordination of the former National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Regional Director Abraham Akilit (now Bauko Mayor) some actual groundwork was done. These included the documentation of the Major River systems of the region with which I was directly involved and of course those couple of actual ground inspections and even strikes conducted in some forested areas in the Tri-boundary of Mtn. Province, Ifugao, and Benguet. There were massive forest conversion into vegetable gardens with the use of heavy equipment like bulldozers and backhoes. Centuries-old pine forests and mountains were falttened to become cash-crop farms by some moneyed people from well-known vegetable producing towns along the Halsema.
These were being done right at the noses of authorities. Even the RDC that declared the region as a watershed cradle did not lift a finger. It was only Dir. Akilit of NIA who did something. Having been directly involved in those small efforts, I was hoping that the government would come up with a program to address the problem comprehensively but, alas things just went back to the way they were after Dir. Akilit retired. Government became the usual– with business as usual attitude. Meantime, Dir. Akilit became the Mayor of Bauko. I am sure his passion for environmental protection remains but, as mayor, he cannot do much. With the current situation, more and more climactic phenomena will continue to happen, and we could only look at the lost years of opportunity when something for the environment could have been done.
Our watersheds are supposed to be natural water tanks or water reservoirs. During the rainy season, they are like a giant sponge absorbing rain water. The water is slowly released to the waterways (rivers, creeks) during the dry season and fills those hydro-electric dams and irrigation systems, and maintaining the aquifers in the lowlands. With an almost completely damaged watersheds, we could only expect an even worse scenario in the coming years.
Maybe it’s not yet hopeless for this country to have a real change for better governance. Otherwise, we the people of this country might really be that dumb. Recently I came across a post from a research agency based in Antarctica of a giant Iceberg that got separated from that ice continent due to the warming of those areas. The size of that iceberg is so huge that it was estimated to be as big as a180 kilometers long, 120 meters wide and 70 meters to 150 meters thick. And that is just one occurrence because there are more unreported ones both in Antarctica and in the North pole. With such size that will soon melt, it will immediately cause the submersion of big parts of coastal lands all over the world. And of course, considering our country’s location and topography as an archipelago we will be one of the most affected. I remember what the late former Senator Heherson Alvarez said during one media forum here in Baguio that unless things will change in the way humans deal with climate change problems or environmental degradation, the Cordillera highlands and some mountainous areas in Mindanao might be the only remaining lands of this country. And the same would be true in many other countries of the world. **
