DEALING WITH OPPOSITION TO WATER AND POWER PROJECTS

How will government deal with opposition from local communities?

More than new roads and new airports, I believe what requires greater focus and priority now are new power and water supply projects to benefit the whole country. While a new train or mass transit system for Metro Manila will truly be a welcome relief, light rail systems running on electricity won’t get far without new power supply projects.

And to date, many taps in Metro Manila still run dry, and many farms in the countryside are still without irrigation and rely solely on rain. Couple dry taps with power shortages, and new trains, roads, and airports will be for naught. Water shortages impact public health and sanitation, agriculture and food, while power shortages impact industries and residences.

One concern, however, is that in pursuing new water and power supply projects, will we also end up sacrificing stricter standards for environmental protection and the sustainable use of natural resources? Will political will and determination to succeed also result in violations of human rights and the displacement of people?

The Department of Energy (DoE) has reportedly listed seven sites in Luzon, four in the Visayas, and three in Mindanao for new power plants and transmission lines to be built. At the same time, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System ( MWSS) is looking into three big water projects and a new dam that will supply water to Metro Manila.

And, almost always, when we start talking about major water and power supply projects, there is always the usual public apprehension over government corruption, construction shortcuts, and other “accommodations” that are at the expense of project standards or the environment, or result in displacing indigenous people from project areas.

Whether or not to still allow the use of coal for power is one question. Are we also going to finally allow nuclear energy? Also, a concern is whether water supply and dam projects will disrupt existing ecological systems, or will result in harm or damage to existing rivers systems, watersheds, and rainforests.

To be expected to go with major public works projects are public protests, questions and allegations from losing bidders, unsolicited proposals, among other things. But, given the present peace and order scenario, and the present administration’s seeming impatience with bureaucracy, it remains uncertain to what extent this government can tolerate “opposition” to its initiatives.

One recalls the case of the late Macliing Dulag, a 50-year- old famer and leader of the Butbut tribe in the Cordilleras. He was gunned down reportedly by Army soldiers in 1980 mainly for his opposition to the Chico River hydroelectric dam project. The dam was proposed by the Marcos administration and was to be financed by the World Bank.

Dulag rallied tribes versus the water-power project because it would have submerged 1,400 square-kilometers of traditional highland villages and ancestral domains in the Mountain Province, Kalinga, and Apayao. The

project was eventually abandoned after Dulag’s death, primarily because of local opposition to it.

And then there was San Roque Dam, which is the largest dam in the Philippines and reportedly the 16th largest in the world. The dam spans two towns, San Manuel and San Nicolas, in Pangasinan. Its reservoir extends north to Itogon, Benguet. The water-power project took almost five years to build, and opened in 2003.

Before and during construction, the dam project was opposed also by tribal people for allegedly adverse social and environmental effects on the host community. Families at the dam site claimed to have been forcibly displaced, while more than 2,000 Ibaloi families in Itogon claimed the project would result in erosion and destruction of their livelihood.

Presently, DoE proposes the construction of new power plants in Sucat, Muntinlupa; Malaya, Rizal; Labo, Camarines Norte; Bay and Lumban in Laguna; Naga, Camarines Sur; Daraga, Albay; Compostela, Mactan and Corella as well as Calbayog in the Visayas; and San Francisco, Sultan Kudarat and Pitogo in Mindanao.

While there have been no strong public opposition to the proposed projects so far, I expect more noise in near future after the DoE announced that it would be technology-neutral, and would leave to power plant proponents to offer suitable and appropriate modes. These presumably include oil, coal, natural gas, geothermal power, and renewable energy.

Coal use, I believe, will be the contentious issue, unless there are proponents for nuclear energy as well. Despite talk of cleancoal technology, the use of coal for power supply still finds stiff opposition particularly from environment groups. Then there is the issue of projects or technologies adversely affecting host communities.

As for water projects in the pipeline, the government is proposing the Kaliwa Dam project in General Nakar and Infanta, Quezon; the Sumag River diversion project; and the Wawa and Laiban dam projects. The Sumag project is reportedly more than half way done, but work was suspended last year after an accident that killed six workers. Work will soon restart.

The thing with all these water projects is that they are all in the Sierra Madre mountain range in Northeast Luzon, and environmental groups oppose water projects in the area for fear of environmental destruction and displacement of indigenous peoples. One group claims the Kaliwa dam project alone will submerge a mountain village, flood a watershed area of 9,700 hectares, and displace 1,465 families.

As for the Laiban dam project, it has reportedly been on and off since 1979. The first project was stalled after Marcos was ousted in 1986, and since then peoples’ groups have been fighting it since it could allegedly submerge up to nine villages in Rizal and Quezon province. The Arroyo administration tried but failed to revive the project.

In 2009, the San Miguel Bulk Water Company, Inc. submitted its unsolicited proposal to build Laiban dam, but the project still didn’t get through. Then, it was re- initiated by the Aquino administration, I believe in 2011. Opposition continues, given that combined with the Kaliwa dam project, the initiative allegedly threatens to submerge a total of 28,000 hectares.

There is always the concern that dam projects in particular adversely impact indigenous culture and way of life. Peoples’ groups cite the experience of tribes displaced by the construction of the Ambuklao and Binga dams in Benguet province in the Cordillera in the 1950s. In fact, many initiatives to build a dam along Agno river in the Cordilleras, including the Chico dam, all met public resistance from local communities.

And this brings me to my final point.

While the energy projects announced are new, the water projects are all based on old plans or new versions of previously failed attempts to construct dams in the Sierra Madres. Kaliwa, Kanan, Laiban, Wawa, and Sumag are not new. Of the five, only Sumag is already in actual implementation.

I do not question the necessity of these water projects. They are all urgent, without doubt. But I do wonder what has changed under this administration that it actually expects to succeed where its predecessors — since 1979 in the case of Laiban — had all failed. Also, I wonder how it intends to deal with any opposition from local communities.