Looming drought may bring water, power outages to Philippines
Pastor Dale Morgan
Looming drought may bring water, power outages to Philippines*
MANILA, July 26 (AFP) Jul 26, 2007
A prolonged dry spell in the Philippines has raised the possibility of
water shortages and power cuts in the capital and surrounding areas,
officials said Thursday.
President Gloria Arroyo had asked the public to save water and ordered
all agencies to prepare for a drought if rains do not come by August,
the presidential palace said.
Falling water levels had affected the operations of hydroelectric dams
that provide power to metropolitan Manila and surrounding areas, forcing
the state-run National Power Corp. (Napocor) to introduce daily
three-hour outages which started Wednesday, the firm said.
"We are in fact already undertaking (cloud) seeding operations over our
dams to stimulate precipitation to produce rain. However, we must at
least have natural clouds to produce positive results from the seeding,"
Napocor said.
Napocor sources said power was already being diverted from its
coal-fired plants to minimize power cuts in the capital.
Science Undersecretary Graciano Yumul has said Metro Manila received
minimal rainfall in June and virtually no rainfall so far in July,
adding that if the situation continued in August, the weather bureau
would have to declare a drought in Metro Manila and other parts of the
main island of Luzon.
Arroyo has ordered water impounding -- storing available water in wells
and cisterns -- as a short-term solution.
For the long-term she has called for the rehabilitation of deep wells,
planting of drought-resistant crops, modifying the cropping calendar,
and monitoring the ground water level.