Monday, September 8, 2008

Panglao Island Water Crisis: Old Problem

If Panglao Island was an Academy, its officialdom passed the Pre-Finals Test last Friday.

Keeping their cool, though privately peeved by the political intramurals in Panglao politics, the prime movers Governor Rico Aumentado and First District Congressman Edgar Chatto convened the Panglao officials before scores of private stockholders, long agitated by the stalemate over the potable water issue in the island Paradise.

The backdrop was grim as the result so damaging if no decision was made Friday. It would have be prejudicial to the efforts to buttress Panglao's claim as successor to the famed Boracay and the P 4-Billion international airport project would have seemed to outsiders like a daunting task - given the fact that people could not even resolve the water issue.The clock was ticking - and time waits for no one.

So it was perhaps the fear of a business disaster and public relation nightmare - that Panglao officials led by Mayor Benedicto Alcala and Vice Mayor Pedro Fuertes finally buried the hatchet under the glare of media, the Provincial Officaldom and tourism stakeholders.

They blinked amidst this pressure - and the Sangguniang Bayan of Panglao was post haste assembled and decided the Panglao Potable Water Project will now go on with Competitive Bidding rather than Open Access execution at the soonest possible time.

Why it would take the iron fist of the provincial brass and an peeved public opinion to address a basic concern an issue in Panglao is an indictment against the parochial politics of destruction and nihilism of the island officials. The successful Friday consultation also proved, however, that they are not beyond redemption.

But after the press photo opportunity, the Final Test of implementation is still to be carried out.

Let's do the competitive bidding with utter transparency and meritrocacy in mind and filter out the bogus, fly-by-night pretenders. 
No other day must be lost hereafter - otherwise the sin of procrastination and sloth will be added to the previous list of parochialism, politicking and fighting for vested self interest. The people of Panglao and Bohol have had enough.

The time for final redemption of Panglao is about to begin.

THE SUBJECT OF WATER

With the inevitable progression of Panglao as a tourism magnet - with or without an international airport - the demand for water will indeed be tremendous. All the more we should act like paranoids in being jealous of and zealous over the protection of our water resources. A main natural resource of Bohol .

There is Imperial Cebu to watch out for, though we remain friendly neighbors in the Central Visayas. They need water badly and attempted to do a Bohol-Cebu Water Supply Project while eyeing with a covetous glare the lusty Inabanga River.

When Mactan needed white sand, they pirated barge-loads from Panglao and other Bohol coastlines in the darkness of the night. When they went on an industrial boom, we lost the islands of Tambulian and Malingao off Clarin town to quarrying for Cebu's needs. Water be next?

Bohol has to preserve the remaining water supply it has. We haven't even started the golf courses which will undeniably come into being in Bohol and uptown Tagbilaran City is just starting to grow exponentially.

We have poor yield of rice in Bohol because of inefficient, possibly graft-ridden dams, built on interest-bearing loans of a Japanese bank to be paid by the entire nation. There seems to be not enough water in the dams or the latter is used inefficiently - in both counts, government is largely to blame. 

The so-called Bohol Integrated Irrigation System supposedly covering 10,260 appears to be a monument of failure - considering the area being covered. Exoneration by our biased judicial system of some officials involved in some dam mess does not erase this fact - and an angry public knows.

After spending billions to construct them, the Malinao Dam in Pilar (supposed to service 4,960 hectares), the Bayongan Dam (San Miguel) for 4,140 hectares and Capayas Dam (Ubay) for 1,160 hectares may soon need additional millions of pesos in borrowed money to "rehabilitate" them.

Today, we are reckless with water usage because we have water in wanton abandon. And because there are eco-tourism projects like the Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape Project that still tries to conserve water and soil. But for much further can we erode our water supply until the need becomes acute?Do we see a provincial Water Management Program good for the next ten years? If there is, do the people know there is one? - Editorial Bohol Chronicle

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