President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has emphasized the need to store and use the rainwater to be dumped by the La Niña phenomenon for future use by farmers in case of another dry spell.

Speaking to reporters here on Monday, the President said the government would improve the flood control system and build more irrigation canals for water storage.

“Aayusin natin ‘yung flood control, gagawin nating irrigation, mag-iipon tayo ng tubig para pagka naabutan na naman tayo ng tagtuyot, kagaya ngayon ay mayroon tayong pagkukuhanan ng tubig (We will fix flood control, we will build irrigation, we will store water so that when a dry spell similar to what we have now recur, we have a source to get water from),” he told reporters after the distribution of individual land titles at the Tacloban Convention Center here.

President Marcos signed Executive Order (EO) No. 53 on Jan. 19, 2024 to streamline, reactivate, and reconstitute the old El Niño task forces under EO No. 16 (s. 2001) and Memorandum Order No. 38 (s. 2019).

Under EO No. 53, the President instructed the new task force to develop a comprehensive disaster preparedness and rehabilitation plan for El Niño and La Niña to provide “systematic, holistic, and results-driven interventions” to help the public cope and minimize their devastating effects.

“So, ongoing naman iyan eh (it is ongoing). There’s no need to do anything special. We are already doing everything that we can to prepare for, well, another El Niño and the La Niña that we are anticipating will come,” he told reporters.

One of the strategies that the Department of Agriculture is campaigning for is rainwater harvesting, or the collection and storage of rain, rather than letting it run off.

With an average rainfall volume of 2,348 millimeters during the wet season, the DA encourages food producers to take the opportunity to stock rainwater for future use.

Aside from this, the DA is also implementing other water management projects, including the improvement of irrigation canals and other small-scale irrigation projects. It is also banking on the Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) technology, which relatively uses much less water. AWD is the controlled and intermittent release of irrigation water.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration earlier reported that the El Niño weather phenomenon was weakening, but hotter and drier conditions would persist.

The state weather bureau also said La Niña would develop during the June-July-August season. (PNA)