Water, energy management

Ike Señeres

AS it is now, water management in the provinces is already localized, by way of the Local Water Districts (LWDs). The problem is, these LWDs are only functioning in the distribution side, and not in the generation and transmission sides. As I see it, our water management system should follow what we are doing in energy management, and that is the division of functions between generation, transmission and distribution. As I understand it, most of our LWDs are largely dependent on dams for their supply of water, and they are not doing much generation except to pump out the water from these dams. Sad to say, these LWDs are not even thinking of generating water through wastewater recycling, rainwater collection, saltwater desalination, or through groundwater extraction.

Even if we could say that dams are reliable sources of water, that is actually a dead end option, because when the dams dry up or go down in water levels, then we would have no alternative choices. Based on recent news reports, our water security is already threatened, because we are now solely dependent on rain to fill up our dams, meaning to say that if there is no rain, there is no water. Some might say that this is already a given, that if there is no rain there is no water, but that is not really exactly true. Water is a resource that is all over us, except that we have to generate it in order to make it clean and potable. In a manner of speaking, water is just like energy that is all over us, except that we have to generate it to make it available and usable.

The organizational structure of our local water and energy management is different from each other. The LWDs are actually like quasi-government entities, being supposedly under the control of the Local Government Units (LGUs). The Local Electric Cooperatives (LECs) are supposed to be private entities that are owned by local residents, but in reality, most of these LECs are under the direct control of the National Electrification Administration (NEA). Based on the division of functions in energy management, these LECs are assigned the task of distribution, and as it is now, very few of them are involved in generation and transmission.

Even if it is very difficult to see the direct connection, reforestation is actually the missing link between water generation and power generation. We already know that trees have the capability to hold water in their roots and because of that; they are able to store water that would eventually drip down to the water bodies and aquifers in the lowlands. However, recent studies show that trees also emit moisture into the atmosphere that eventually becomes the clouds that ultimately fall as rain. Of course, we know that trees are not the only source of moisture that goes up into the atmosphere, but suffice it to say that they contribute much of it. The same studies also show a direct correlation between the lack of trees and the incidence of droughts, and that is simply because the lack of trees would cause the lack of rain, hence the lack of water that causes the droughts.

It is only in recent history wherein mankind has learned to capture the sun’s energy by way of solar panels. Before that however, ever since the earth was created, trees already had the capability to capture the sun’s energy by way of storing it into its roots, trunks, branches and leaves. Ever since the beginning of civilization, man has been burning wood and other tree parts for fuel, and that has not stopped until now. While it is true that the indiscriminate cutting of trees for fuel is wrong, there is nothing wrong with growing trees for fuel, as long as the mountains are reforested as fast as the grown trees are harvested. You may not have heard about it yet, but dendro-thermal is a reliable and sustainable source of energy, more popularly known for its gasifier engines.

Perhaps it is just the way the government is organized, because the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) does not think about generating power, and the NEA does not think about generating water. I can understand how difficult it is for some people to think out of the box, but I think it would not be too difficult for NIA to produce power, and it would not be too difficult either for NEA to produce water. As we already know, even slow water currents could already produce hydropower, so why can’t the NIA also produce energy as it distributes water for irrigation? As we also know, it is only the cost of energy that makes water filtration and desalination uneconomical. As soon as energy costs go down however, water filtration and desalination would become more practical, so why can’t the NEA also produce water as it produces power?

Talking about practicality, it is definitely more practical to collect and filter rainwater before it goes into the sea, because once the water is in the sea, it would cost more to collect and desalinate it back into fresh water. In a radio interview, a government official said that “it only floods when it rains”. Another one said that “it only floods because there is no drainage”. Even if I could not fathom the wisdom of what they said, I would be willing to say that it does not have to flood when it rains, if only we could collect the water as it rains, at least the water that are not collected into the dams. I would also be willing to add that if we are going to invest more money in adding more drainage structures, we might as well drain the water into cisterns where we could filter these right away into clean and potable water.

Going back to the subject of localizing water management, why not enable the provincial governments so that they could generate their own water supplies? And since the LWDs are already in place, why not give them the task of water transmission and give the task of water distribution to local water cooperatives? For whatever it is worth, the division of functions in the power sector is working very well, except for a few wrinkles. There are companies that do the power generation; one company does the power transmission while the electric cooperatives do the power distribution in the areas where Meralco has no franchise.

As I see it, it would also be practical to enable the provincial governments so that they could generate their own power, while encouraging local companies to invest in local power transmission. And since the local electric cooperatives are already in place, let them keep the power distribution business because that is where they are good at. Also for practical reasons however, the power generation in the provinces should shift towards renewable and sustainable energy sources such as solar, wind, hydro and dendro sources. Talking about dendro, it is not enough to plant trees, because nourishing them and growing them is the harder part. Aside from producing oxygen, we now have two other reasons to grow trees, and that is to generate water and energy locally.

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