Pampanga, Bulacan sinking -’balikscientist’
February 6, 2008
Owing to the overuse of ground-water, subsidence, or the sinking of land, has been are in parts of Bulacan and Pampanga at a rate of 3 centimeters to 17 centimeters a year, a noted Filipino-American geologist said recently.
Dr. Kelvin Rodolfo, who is in the country under the Balik Scientist Program of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), said the effect is that areas experiencing subsidence get flooded easily, but the water subsides slowly. The subsidence study his team had made in Bulacan and Pampanga which started in 1997
emanated from reports of serious flooding in Pampanga.
Despite the alarming trend, those in charge of flood control in the government do not seem to recognize the results of the studies made by his team, Rodolfo lamented. Worse, several of the flood-control projects of recent years have not been up to par.
The big problem is that when you tell people that you are protecting them from floods, but in fact your [flood-control] project is not good, [the effect is that] you will kill people.. . .That is basically condemning them to death,” Rodolfo told BusinessMirror at the sidelines of the press conference at the DOST at the presentation of the current batch of seven Balik Scientists.
Since its establishment in 1975 the program has attracted 296 Filipino scientists living abroad to share their expertise with the country in order to accelerate the scientific, agro-industrial and economic development in the country.
Rodolfo, a professor emeritus of the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Illinois in Chicago, is in the country to continue the analysis of land subsidence and related flooding and tidal incursion in Central Luzon and coastal Metro Manila; study the forensics of lethal 2006 Mayon Volcano lahars and the mitigation of future flows; revise and develop the Philippine edition of the book General Science for Environmental Earth Science; and teach Geo 297 course of climate change and its Philippine implications.
Also in the current Balik Scientist program are sisters Dr. Jane Betty Goh, chemistry expert and founder of Molecular Construction, a company that provides consulting services to both industry and academic research groups in Canada; and Dr. Ma. Cynthia Goh, chemistry expert and professor at University of Toronto; Dr. Alfonso Albano, a physicist and a Marion Reilly Professor Emeritus Research Professor at the Department of Physics of the Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania; Dr. Antonio Ordoveza, a dairy nutrition/reproductive physiologist and a consultant at OMR in Illinois; Dr. Teresita Kullberg, an inorganic/physical chemist and owner of Kesh Invecom Llc in North Carolina; and Dr. Leopoldo Ilag, a molecular neurobiologist and director of Stockholm University Proteomics Facility in Sweden.
Rodolfo said that last year when the Camanava (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela) area experienced high tide the water overflowed from the dikes, even though there were no rains or strong winds.
Obviously the dikes are too low, he said. We presented that to DPWH [Department of Public Works and Highways] but,” he trailed off, hinting at inaction from the government agency.
All the countries in the world recognize the problem [subsidence]. But the Philippine government still does not recognize the problem. And that is a serious problem,” he lamented.
Rodolfo stressed that the big problem is that when land has subsided, it cannot be reversed. When it subsides, it stays there.”
His prescription: We should not use more ground water than can be furnished by nature.
Because if you do, its like you are mining ground water. Mining means taking out more than what goes in. So the land goes down.”
He stressed that golf courses use huge amounts of ground water.
Rodolfo said that while the world is looking into the threats of sea-level rise due to global warming, many parts of the world, like the Philippines, are sinking 10 times faster than the global level due to subsidence.
He said, If you cannot build dikes high enough, dont build at all.
Alternatives in flood-prone areas are building houses on stilts, or discouraging people from staying in the area.
Rodolfo said his team has made its presentation in 2003 to three Cabinet secretaries and the undersecretary of Public Works, who left in the middle of the presentation.”
In 2006 Rodolfos team leader, Dr. Fernando Siringan of the University National Institute of Biological Sciences, spoke in Baguio with President Arroyo about the problem of subsidence, but Siringan was referred to Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando.
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Please, tell where can we find the details of this research. As part of the emerging Filipino generation, I don’t want to spend my lifetime fixing problems created (or rather ignored) by our leaders today.
Thanks,
Feb