BY: FAYETTE C. RIÑEN
CEBU CITY, September 24 (PIA) --- Over 100 participants from tri-media and students combined gathered yesterday for a forum on climate change as one of the series of activities in celebration of the Cebu Press Freedom Week that kicked off on September 21.
The forum tackled the alarming issue of climate change and its impact on extreme weather patterns and water supply and balancing environment with development amid the construction boom in Cebu.
Resource speakers were Engr. Oscar Tabada, chief meteorologist of Pagasa-Visayas; Engr. Lasaro Salvacion, department manager of the Environment and Water Resources of the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) and Dr. Eddie Llamedo, chief of the Regional Public Affairs Office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-7).
Tabada said since 1950s, climate change already exists but that a continuous increase in temperature will lead to global warming which in turn results to climate change. Climate change, he added, will experience warmer and drier summer and wetter wet season.
“Because of extreme weather events due to climate change, there will be more disasters,” warned Tabada.
Tabada meanwhile said the current El Niño is weak and that starting November, “we will experience below normal average rainfall.”
Salvacion on the other hand, said that even without climate change, the water utility firm needs to augment its water production to meet the rising population in Metro Cebu and the water demand of a growing business community.
“At present, we are only providing 43 percent of water needs to Metro Cebu as we hope to increase this by over 60 percent in 2020,” said Salvacion.
According to Salvacion, the population in Metro Cebu in 1995 stands at 1.293 million which figure is expected to double by this year.
With the El Niño, Salvacion said they are expecting surface water sources to be affected. MCWD now adopts measures in case of a dry spell that would affect its water production supply.
The MCWD produces 40,000 cubic meters a day from surface water sources. Salvacion said any loss of production is offsetted by the 18,000 cu.m. of water daily from Carmen; 11,000 cu.m./day from Abejo water and another 2,520 cu. m./day from other water project sources.
“We only have a deficit of 7,980 cu.m./day water supply which is where public cooperation comes in to practice water conservation measures,” said Salvacion.
Llamedo meanwhile said one major factor before an investor pours in money is to determine the environment as he provided the list of specific areas in Cebu that are prone to landslides and flooding.
The DENR-7 public information chief also said they are now completing the 1:10,000 geohazard map where he urged local government units to maximize its use before planning development structures in their areas.
An open forum followed right after the presentations which had veteran broadcasters and college students throwing questions at the panelists making the activity more lively.
A commitment signing to take care of the environment followed after the open forum with PIA-7, KBP officials and all the resource panelists and other participants.
The forum was a joint undertaking of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA-7) and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas – Cebu Chapter in cooperation with the MCWD and the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC-7). (mbcn/fcr/PIA-7)