The country just lost another year and potentially, could be more in the planned construction of the P12-billion Kaliwa Dam project, seen as the answer to Metro Manila’s threatening water shortage problem in the coming years.

The Kaliwa Dam project’s planned groundbreaking had been scheduled last year after the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) gave China Energy Engineering Corporation (CEEC) the green light to proceed with a detailed engineering and design.

High-profile protests by groups associated with staunch environmentalists and concerned indigenous peoples have made any meaningful progress difficult this year with the pandemic, limiting work to project-related road clearing activities.

Recently, Quezon Governor Danilo Suarez joined in opposition to the project, calling to attention the resulting possibility of floods and landslides from big dam projects, a reality that often happens with other similar mega undertakings.

Quezon Province is home to the towns of Real, Infanta, and General Nakar where flashfloods and mudslides in 2004, which killed more than a thousand people, still evokes anxiety. Quezon had also been badly affected by the recent typhoon Ulysses.

Alternative to big dams

Environmental scientists are challenging big dam projects, citing not just the destruction of the forest ecosystem, but also the resulting siltation over time that reduces water-impounding benefits.

They, instead, propose a shift to micro and small hydro projects that are less capital intensive, less intrusive to the ecological balance, and will not endanger the ancestral lands that belong to indigenous people (IP).

Such a position, of course, runs counter to Chinese interests of having a stake in the country’s water infrastructure projects, and subsequently adding more flesh to its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative plan which largely focuses on investing in huge infrastructure projects in its poor Asian neighbors.

In the Philippines, aside from the Kaliwa Dam project, China is also deeply interested in a dam and power project in Mindanao that will harness the powerful flow of the southern section of the Pulangi River to produce 250 megawatts of power.

To be built at a cost of $800 million, also by Chinese state-owned CEEC, the proposed 143-meter dam will submerge more than 2,800 hectares of IP lands in four towns, affecting residents of at least 20 communities where some 30,000 people live.

Influencers

The concerns of affected locals is being taken up environmental and human rights groups active in Mindanao, but in a more suppressed manner given the degree of militarization in the remote parts of the island. In a sense, getting the Pulangi project off the ground would be easier.

In the case of the Kaliwa Dam project, being more accessible to Metro Manila and the seat of the country’s political power has allowed a freer play of opposition, which also includes local religious groups that still hold some influence in local affairs.

The plan to tap Sierra Madre’s Kaliwa River to supplement water supply from Angat Dam and Ipo Dam has been in the works for close to five decades now, but has always been miffed by protests. Water rationing has already begun in the metropolis, which has been rapidly growing in area and population.

Pressure to find new sources of water has yielded to the President signing an administrative order that aims to expedite the review and approval process involving flagship projects that would affect water security, notably including the Kaliwa Dam project.

The play of forces gets more interesting, and seeing a resolution to this long-standing issue will be in the nation’s best interest. Perhaps looking at other alternatives that would be acceptable to everyone’s interest would be timely.

Worse than getting a passport

The current mess involving the order of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to migrate all toll users to a cashless system is proof of bureaucratic ineptitude, and of poor advice and action by concessionaires Metro Pacific Tollways and San Miguel Corporation.

In the first place, having vehicles installed with electronic passes should have been pushed by the DOTr ages ago, even before the quarantines, instead of allowing the concessionaires to invest in building more lanes to respond to the growing number of vehicles passing through the toll roads.

Then again, during the last few months while under quarantine, installation of radio frequency identification (RFID) stickers on vehicles could have been done in batches, i.e., trucks first, then commercial vehicles, light vehicles by plate ending numbers, and motorcycles.

This would have minimized the mad rush by almost everyone to meet the Dec. 1 deadline, which laughably had to be postponed again after motorists, including myself, could not get an Autosweep RFID despite following all the rules.

This has turned out worse than getting a passport; for many, the online queuing to get an appointment to have an Autosweep installed was already in late January 2021. Thus, it’s small consolation that the DOTr announced a moratorium on fines during the Christmas season for not having an RFID.

Definitely, better foresight is something that needs to be instilled in our government agencies that would allow them to avoid bringing about such needless controversies.

Alternative to big dams

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