A Greenpeace activist wearing a face mask of presidential aspirant Gilbert Teodoro sleeps on a mat depicting a drought parched soil at Teodoro’s campaign headquarters in Mandaluyong City.
Filipinos will be electing our next
leaders in less than a week, and yet some of the leading contenders
have yet to take a solid and clear stand on issues that continue to
wreak havoc on the country every year. We are worried that the
country will remain most vulnerable and least prepared for climate
change impacts if the next President continues to ignore and
sidestep such issues. The country needs a concrete action plan to
help the nation cope with the mounting impacts of climate change,
and the next president has to hit the ground running on this issue
when he or she assumes office," said Mark Dia, Deputy Campaign
Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.
Activists wearing masks of the
presidentiables "slept" on cushions placed upon mats depicting the
cracked soil of agricultural lands dried up by El Niño, and had
blown up versions of the Greenpeace letter of demand as their
blankets.
The other week, Greenpeace had
delivered the letters to respective campaign headquarters, along
with images from drought affected areas around the country. The
letter asked for two specific measures:
1) Prioritize hazards and vulnerability-assessments to identify
risks, and implement adaptation measures to prevent or alleviate
water shortage in case of drought; or lessen damage to crops,
property and infrastructure in the case of too much rain.
Greenpeace identified two possible and measurable steps to achieve
this:
- Establish at least 25 small community/farmland water
impoundments in areas most at risk to drought;
- Create a special fund for research on non
genetically-engineered drought-resistant crops, innovative farming
techniques and technologies that minimize water consumption.
2) Improve the existing capabilities of monitoring teams to
develop efficient forecasting and warning systems for extreme
weather events that are critical to protecting lives, property and
critical environmental resources. This includes engaging the
academe and NGOs to be partners of PAGASA in data-sharing, weather
monitoring and forecasting; and directing the MMDA and the DPWH to
de-clog Metro Manila storm drains by August 2010.
The drought images were gathered
from the Greenpeace Water Watch project that had established a
week-long camp at the Angat reservoir from April 12, and the mobile
Water Watch station that had expeditions into drought-stricken
agricultural communities in North and Central Luzon.
Angat Dam supplies 97% of Metro Manila's household and
industrial water requirements, irrigation for agricultural lands in
Bulacan and Pampanga, and water for the operation of a
hydroelectric power plant for Metro Manila. The water level in the
reservoir breached the 180masl (meters above sea level) critical
point on April 13 and continues to recede by about 0.24meters a day
-- or a meter every four to five days.
"Just a few months ago, the country was caught unprepared by
unprecedented levels of rainfall and landslides during typhoons
Ondoy and Pepeng. Clearly, climate change is already upon us, and
the country is among the most vulnerable and least prepared to deal
with the impacts," added Dia. "We will continue to periodically
feel the effects of extreme weather events that leave us with
either no water or too much water. In the case of the latter, our
fresh water supplies are threatened by contamination, so either
way, our water resources are periodically at risk. We shouldn't
wait for a crisis to act. Greenpeace is asking our future leaders
to be more proactive on these challenges which have literally
become survival issues for an increasing number of Filipinos."
Greenpeace volunteers will shortly be visiting the headquarters
of other candidates who have not committed to Greenpeace's
proposals.
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