Philippines faces water crisis due to insufficient rain

[senorpepr]

MANILA, (AFP) - A water crisis looms over the Philippines this year with eight-year low rainfall levels, threatening farms as well as Manila's taps, officials are warning.

Environment Secretary Elisea Gozun said rainfall levels in the past three months over Luzon, the country's largest island and home to nearly half the population, were only 65 percent of the average for the past eight years.

"This will have a possible huge impact on agriculture," she said over government radio.

The farm sector accounts for about 20 percent of domestic economic output but employs nearly half the Filipino work force.

Agricultural output plunged in 1998 following the El Nino weather phenomenon the previous year.

Gozun said that unlike the El Nino dry spell in 1997, "we do not really notice the drought because it has been raining. However rainfall levels are not enough."

If the trend continued "there would not be enough water to spare for irrigation."

The reservoir level at Angat Dam, Manila's main tap water source, is down by 80,000 cubic meters (104,560 cubic yards), forcing the government to reduce the supply to Manila utilities by five percent. Gozun said 80,000 households have been affected.

"Historically, we cannot expect strong rains over January, February and March," she said. The first heavy seasonal rains were expected to arrive in mid-May, she added.

Asked if Manila, a city of 11 million could face water rationing later this year, Gozun said: "It may lead to that."

She said the government would engage in "cloud-seeding" -- spraying clouds over the Angat basin north of the capital, over the next 20 days in hopes of inducing rain.