Two alternatives to Laiban raised

NGOs battling for total ban of pesticide aerial spraying suffered a loss recently. The World Health Organization has debunked a toxicology study they use to promote the ban. In a teleconference two weeks ago with health officials in Manila, WHO experts in Geneva labeled “inconclusive” the listed health hazards in Davao caused by fungicide spraying from airplanes. Drs. David Coggon (UK) and Brian Priestly (Australia) found “loopholes” in the study commissioned by the Dept. of Health, making its verdict “inadequate”. For the WHO, a ban on aerial spraying is unsupported by sufficient data.

The DOH itself had requested the WHO peer review last Aug. in the wake of a tiff with Davao banana growers and pesticide authorities. It must now release the review for the sake of scientific and health advancement. Peer reviews are a must in modern scientific research, especially medical. Whenever scientists make new studies, experts in the same field examine the methods and conclusions either to verify or discredit them. With the WHO deflating the DOH-funded study, plantation owners in Davao now want full disclosure.

The doubted study is by 11 UP-Manila medics led by Dr. Allan Dionisio. The DOH had tasked them in 2006 to determine if fungicides were contaminating plantation-side Sitio Camocaan, Hagonoy, Davao del Sur. Dionisio’s team saw widespread digestive, lung and skin ills. It echoed an earlier video of death and disease by Dr. Romeo Quijano. Banana growers and local officials assailed both studies. Specifically, two brothers, reported to have died in infancy from fungicide exposure, were found alive in their teens. Community NGOs produced more “victims” of spray poisoning, each one challenged by plantation owners.

The WHO peer review deeply affects Philippine government moves. A case to uphold the ban hangs in the Supreme Court, brought there by the Davao City council. The council had ordered a ban in 2006, but an appellate court barred its enforcement. Pending in the Senate and House are bills to stop aerial spraying not only in Davao but nationwide. The next public hearing is set for Nov. 20 in Cagayan de Oro. Meanwhile, an earlier peer review, conducted also by UP-Manila, awaits release. Long completed, delay in its publicity has spawned talk that it too might be adverse to the Dionisio study.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque does not consider the WHO opinion a setback, however. Dismissing Coggon and Priestly as “unknowledgeable in aerial sprays by their own admission,” he disclosed yesterday that the DOH formally would push for the ban “within the week or the day.” Duque said the WHO experts had conceded during the teleconference that they did not run field tests in Davao. This, for Duque, rendered their review worthless. He pointed to a third WHO expert from South Africa who supposedly did confirmatory studies, but couldn’t recount the name and findings by press time.

Presided by Dr. Soe Nyunt-U, WHO representative to RP, the teleconference was attended by members of the Inter-Agency Committee on Environmental Health: Usec. Mario Villaverde, Yolanda Oliveros, Dr. Nelia Maramba, Dr. Irma Macalinao (DOH); Dr. Norlito Gicana (Fertilizer-Pesticide Authority); Aida Ordas and Angie Brabante (DENR).

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Mega Manila lacks 1,200 million liters a day (MLD) of water. Angat Dam can pipe only 4,000 MLD to La Mesa reservoir, onto 5.3 million homes. Due to the 30-percent shortage, the two private distributors must ration by reduced hours.

MWSS’ solution is to erect a $2-billion Laiban Dam in Tanay, Rizal, which on paper can supply 1,900 MLD of water, plus 30 MW of electricity. Construction will be by build-operate-transfer, so no cost to government. But MWSS is bestowing a take-or-pay proviso to the operator that would jack up water rates by half. Other downsides linger. Dam concreting will take six long years. With 28,000 hectares to inundate, 30,000 people need relocating. Waterfalls and forests will vanish, stifling surrounding orchards, and further warming the metropolis nearby and silting Laguna Lake below. Worst is Laiban’s height of 115 meters atop Tanay’s slopes. It would pose constant peril of flooding Laguna and Rizal provinces, the way big San Roque Dam recently drowned Pangasinan and Tarlac.

There must be better ways and experts point to at least two. The first is to rehabilitate Wawa Dam in Rodriguez, Rizal, only 20 km northeast of La Mesa. Tons of water flow wasted over Wawa into Marikina and Pasig rivers ever since the 101-year-old dam was closed in 1968. It can be renovated in eight months to yield 50 MLD, then up to 1,400 MLD and 300 MW of power in five years, covering only 6,200 hectares. Only 1,500 squatters need eviction. Cost of Wawa water would be P18 per cubic meter, compared to Laiban’s projected P45.

The other option is to tap 11 rivers in the Sierra Madre-part of Laguna (Mabitac town) southeast of Metro Manila. Flowing onto the Pacific Ocean, river waters can be impounded in small dams to yield 350 MLD in two years, and another 350 by the third year. Full capacity of 2,300 MLD can be reached by further expanding by 200 MLD a year. Mini-hydroelectricity can add 300 MW. The water can be cascaded by gravity to underwater pipes across Laguna Lake to Muntinlupa and onto faraway Cavite and Batangas. A private firm holds the rights to develop the 11 river systems. It has offered to sell to Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc. at the same rate they buy from MWSS’ Angat Dam.

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“Perfect love is enshrined in perfect trust. Since God is love, He is also the God we can fully trust.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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