The Water Resources Management Office (WRMO) will release this week recommended measures to help address the impact of the El Ni?o phenomenon, the President Communications Office said.
The move came following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directives for the newly created water body “to mitigate the effects of El Ni?o …at least for this year.”
“We will have a plan for the mitigation of the effects of El Ni?o this week. I just spoke to the Secretary of DENR this morning and she has told me that she will be prepared to make public what needs to be done,” Marcos said during a meeting in Malacanang.
He said Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, Department of Public Works and Highways and the National Irrigation Administration are working with the WRMO for the plan to address the dry spell.
The WRMO, created under EO 22, is under the DENR.
Marcos also announced he has tapped former Public Works and Highways secretary Rogelio Singson to help the government in coming up with the solution to the problem.
Singson, a water management expert, will help with the contingency measure for El Ni?o and in crafting an overall plan for the Philippines.
“Because we have enough surface water. It’s just a question of protecting it. We are designing now a system of catchment basins not only for flood control. The original plan was only for flood control. But now, we have said we have to… that flood control always now includes irrigation and sometimes even power, if we can do it,” Marcos said.
He said the NIA will rely on the dams for continuous supply of water for the irrigation of lands.
He also said the hot and humid weather being felt today is not yet the onset of El Ni?o.
“We haven’t felt – people think that this is El Ni?o but we haven’t felt the effects of the El Ni?o. In some areas pero sa ngayon hindi pa talaga ‘yan,” Marcos said. “We have a plan. So we are making sure that we will be ready when that time comes.”–LDF, GMA Integrated News
