MANILA, Philippines—About 70 percent of the world’s population is expected to be living in cities by 2050. Some experts are concerned that as cities continue to grow and prosper, they become less and less habitable for families. For some reason, people stop marrying and having children in places that are too urban, too congested or too expensive. “There’s something really strange that’s going on right now,” said Joel Atkin, an internationally recognized expert on global economic, political and social trends. “What’s happening to many cities is that they are no longer attractive to families,” he said at the closing plenary of the World Cities Summit held in Singapore last month. The summit was a meeting place for leaders to discuss the best ways and practices to make cities more livable. Rich big cities like New York are witness to this phenomenon, and so have rich mid-sized cities like Singapore, Atkin said. Metro Manila Even Metro Manila, which has 11 million residents, does not seem to be an ideal place anymore for growing a family as it grapples with the same issues that beset many big, densely populated cities of the world: congestion, pollution, crime and poverty. “Something in the way we’re building our cities and our society, but cities in particular, is making it toxic for the formation of families and raising children,” Atkin said. “That’s why we have things called suburbs. That’s why people start off in Manhattan, get married and they move up to the Hudson Valley or they go to New Jersey, and they raise a family,” he said. High cost, little space Which is not to say most New Yorkers don’t want to stay in the city. “(But) they can’t afford to stay. They can’t have enough space to stay. And this seems to be the same thing that we’re hearing from people in Singapore—that they may stay but they never have children,” Atkin said. The same could be said for Metro Manila. As people start to raise a family, they move to a neighboring province, like Rizal, Cavite, Laguna or Batangas where land is cheaper and the cost of living is much lower. The question, then, is how do governments create dense urban spaces that can accommodate families? “(We have to know) how we can do that because what we’re building now is certainly not encouraging,” Atkin said. This is probably the single biggest issue that cities must face down the road, in 10, 20 or 30 years “when our cities are overwhelmingly made up of people who are in their 60s, 70s and 80s,” he added. Liu Thai Ker, chair of the Center for Liveable Cities Advisory Board and the master planner of Singapore, admitted that density was a big problem, especially for a city-state like Singapore, which has one of the thickest populations crammed into a tiny space. Singapore has 5 million people and a land area of 702 square kilometers. (Metro Manila is about 636 sq m.) But it is a problem that is not without a solution, he said. Sociologists Liu cited the experience of Singapore’s public housing sector, which had been planned with input from sociologists to determine what was best for the welfare of the families that would live there. “When we started public housing, we had to plan ahead of people’s aspirations. Because in those days, all people wanted was a roof over their heads, nothing more. But we felt that that would be setting too low a standard, and it’s not good for the long term development of Singapore,” he said. “We decided that we would not be building houses, we’re building communities. So that means we had to study what makes a community. What kind of territorial size should we devote for people to have a sense of belonging to this piece of land,” Liu said. Singapore precinct After a lot of surveys, it was determined that the smallest community unit was to be the precinct, which should be somewhere between three and five hectares, and the population should be around 700 to 1,000 families, he said. The rationale was to make sure “you have enough variety of people there,” he said. In fact, Singapore’s public housing estate has a population that roughly approximates the national proportions of ethnicity, that is, the number of Chinese, Indians, Malays and other races in each building must correspond to the national average. On top of that, each estate must only have one entry point. “Because these are urban people, they don’t really go out of their way to make friends with the neighbors, so what we tried to do was, in each precinct, we have only one entry point,” he said. “So at least you can recognize their faces even if you don’t talk to them,” he added. Liu said the sociologists also told him that people stop talking to each other with more than eight families in a block. So what they did was to put partitions in the corridor for every eight families. “Six months later, I went to visit the families (in one block). I went to the first family, Chinese, all the other kids, Malay, Indian, followed into the living room. I went to another one. I went in—all other kids followed me. In fact, some of the neighbors followed me,” he said. “My point is, even in sociology, there’s a possibility to look at a problem, analyze the problem, and find solutions, not just through design, (but) through a variety of means,” Liu said. Intergenerational mixing Atkin said another important feature that must not be absent in cities was intergenerational mixing. “We must bring back multigenerational families, which have been the backbone of urban life from the very beginning. How can we get the older people and younger people together and have multigenerational neighbors?” he said. Most cities want to build neighborhoods where everybody is 30 years old and stays out at 3 in the morning. “Then they’re gonna build senior housing so that all the old people are together,” he said. “That, I think, is very socially destructive both for the old people and the young people,” Atkin said. One good example of an intergenerational neighborhood is the community where his mother lives, he said. “In this (New York) neighborhood, they did a very good job. They have the inner core, which is quite a few single people and elderly, and a lot of houses surrounded with families. You have, during the daytime, a lot of the elderly around, then at night, the kids are out. Then on weekends and Sundays, the families are out. So the same spaces are being used over and over again,” he said. He recalled asking his mother, who was 87 years old, if she wanted to move to Florida with her sister and other people her age. His mother replied: “Oh, that’s for old people.” Preschool, senior center Citing another example, in Los Angeles, he said a preschool sits right next to a senior center. “That breaks down the sense of isolation (among the elderly). I think it’s unnatural for young people not to be with older people, and for older people to be deprived of young people,” he said. But in the future, there may just be fewer and fewer young people in the most successful cities. Stress, low fertility Singapore has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, something Atkin finds ironic, considering government efforts to make sure it can provide for families. Housing in the city-state is heavily subsidized. Education is practically free and health services are universally accessible. “So I asked myself, why aren’t the citizens making children? Were people so stressed, so busy and so competitive? (These are) all the things that made Singapore a great city, and many other cities like New York or San Francisco, a great city. But now it is producing a very strange effect—people are not having children,” he said. “At this agency I was at, they couldn’t even get Singaporeans to date,” he said, eliciting laughter from the audience. Atkin’s observations did not sit well with his hosts. After all, the summit, in some ways, was intended to celebrate urban lifestyles as much as it was to find solutions to the ailments that cities faced. Mah Bow Tan, then Singapore’s minister for national development, said Atkin’s points were too simplistic, and that there might well be other sociological explanations for Singapore’s low birthrate. “In cities like Singapore, and in many cities in Asia, I think high-density living is a necessity. Suburbs are a luxury and we get to make the best of them,” he said. “If you look at the case of Singapore and visit a public housing estate, each town has about 200,000 people. In the town, there are schools, places of worship, work, transportation, shops and sports. Name it, we have it,” he said. “Within this community of 200,000, we start to build flats, apartments which are comfortable, which can house a family of four, five people, three bedrooms, dining hall, and so on. And in each block, there are common spaces. The ground floor is open. Children can play. Where you can hold a wedding. If there’s a demise in the family, you can have a funeral. Or you can hold a concert, or put a child care center, you can put an elderly care center as well,” Mah said. It is quite possible, he insisted, “to have livable, sustainable cities which are high-rise and high-density.” Melbourne Melbourne Mayor Robert Doyle pointed out that something was being forgotten in the debate: “We begin with people, but we very quickly move to buildings and densities, and these sorts of things.” “You know,” he said, “when we think about our cities, the question we have to ask ourselves is why would a family come into the center of our city other than to lose and enjoy themselves?” He said it was the role of city leaders to “activate” their city and make it attractive for all kinds of people to come visit and, perhaps, even move there to raise a family. Comedy festival In Melbourne, he said they are trying to accomplish this through festivals. “Whether it’s a comedy festival, or the arts festival or music festival, we actually pay extra money so that they can put on family-friendly and alcohol-free activities, like in the evening at 10:30, 11, midnight, 12:30, 1 in the morning,” he said. “We often think about the buildings. To me, the important part is the fine grain. The important part is what happens on our streets, what happens when the buildings kick the footpath or the sidewalk, as somebody would say, and the activity that we generate there. That’s what will bring the people in,” he said. Century of culture Doyle said this is the “century of culture.” “It is the century of people, and that’s what we should be serving. So what we try to do is make it very attractive for families to come in. And you can actually plan for this.” In the mid-1990s, Melbourne had only 400 dwellings in the central business district. “And the city decided, ‘we want people in our city, we want families in our city.’” But the property developers were reluctant. “They said, ‘No, no, you can’t sell apartments to families in the middle of the city,’” Doyle said. Residential flats So, he said, the city took a commercial building, converted it into residential flats, and sold them to show the developers that they could have a commercial residential proposition in the middle of the city. “And I believe Melbourne today, from that 400 dwellings in the middle 1990s, we now have 17,000, and that’s in the CBD, right in the center of the city,” Doyle said. “So my answer just keeps coming back to people,” he concluded. “Why would people want to come to the center of your city? It will be different for all of us. But if you get them in there, I’ll tell you what, ‘you get a more vibrant city.’” WORLD'S MEGACITIES MEGACITY POPULATION(in millions) 1 Tokyo 35.68 2 New York-Newark 19.04 3 Mexico City 19.02 4 Mumbai 18.98 5 São Paulo 18.84 6 Delhi 15.92 7 Shanghai 14.99 8 Kolkata 14.79 9 Dhaka 13.48 10 Buenos Aires 12.80 11 LA-Long Beach-Santa Ana 12.50 12 Karachi 12.13 13 Cairo 11.89 14 Rio de Janeiro 11.74 15 Osaka-Kobe 11.29 16 Beijing 11.11 17 Manila 11.10 18 Moscow 10.45 19 Istanbul 10.06 Source: UN-HABITAT 2008; Data from UN Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects 2007; LAWRENCE DE GUZMAN, INQUIRER RESEARCH |
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Big cities toxic to raising kids
Campaign to focus on car aircon refrigerants
By MARVYN N. BENANING
August 31, 2010, 6:15pm
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will be running after vehicles that use ozone-depleting refrigerants starting this month.
To show just how serious the department is, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said all DENR vehicles will be checked to determine if they still use substances that ruin the ozone layer and contribute to global warming.
September is celebrated as the Ozone Month, with all countries mounting campaigns to mitigate climate change.
Overall, the Philippines contributes less than one percent to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), long tagged as the culprit behind the El Niño and La Niña weather phenomena.
Celebrations will kick off this Wednesday, September 1, with Paje leading DENR officials and those from partner agencies in having their service vehicles’ mobile air-conditioners (MAC) tested for ozone-and climate-friendliness.
The tests will be conducted by the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) at the DENR compound in Quezon City.
Paje has committed to reduce pollution levels in the metropolis by 30 percent this year, noting that it can be done since 80 percent of GHG emissions come from ancient motor vehicles.
“Fighting air pollution will simultaneously improve our people’s health and reduce global warming,” he said. “Let us show to the world how Filipinos are taking concrete steps to address the issues of global warming and climate change.”
All car owners are likewise urged to have their own vehicles’ MACs tested for free at the DENR grounds on September 1, or during the simultaneous nationwide roadside MAC testing on September 16.
As signatory to the Kyoto and Montreal Protocols, international treaties which both aim to reduce GHGs in the atmosphere to slash global warming, government has required owners of vehicles with models prior to 1999 to use environment-friendly refrigerants in their MACs before renewing their annual registration.
EMB Director Juan Miguel Cuna said MAC servicing is the largest consumer of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), a GHG believed to be harmful to the ozone layer.
MAC servicing consumes as much as 933 tons of ozone depleting potential (ODP).
“Using ozone-friendly MACs will definitely reduce the amount of CFC released into the atmosphere,” he said.
The EMB’s Philippine Ozone Desk will also sign on the same day a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Philippine Postal Corp. (PhilPost) for the printing of commemorative stamps depicting the 25th anniversary of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer
.Around 49,000 stamps are set to be issued in the last quarter this year.
On September 13, the DENR will sign a contract with Delsa Chemicals and Multi-Products, Inc. as the former launches the “Collection, Transport and Storage of Recovered Refrigerants from Service Shop Voucher Grantees and Chiller Owners under the National CFC Phase-out Plan (NCPP) Project.”
Under the contract, Delsa Chemicals will undertake the collection, transport and storage of refrigerants recovered from machines provided in 2007 by the NCPP’s voucher system to over 2,500 service shops.
With the celebration of International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer on September 16, an Annual Forum on the Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) Phase-out Program will gather representatives of partner agencies, dealers and importers to discuss the status of ODS in the country.
This year’s theme is “Ozone Layer Protection: Governance and Compliance at their Best.”
Published in Manila Bulletin August 31, 2010.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Drive launched vs ozone-depleting substances
Campaign to focus on car aircon refrigerants
By MARVYN N. BENANING
August 31, 2010, 6:15pm
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will be running after vehicles that use ozone-depleting refrigerants starting this month.
To show just how serious the department is, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said all DENR vehicles will be checked to determine if they still use substances that ruin the ozone layer and contribute to global warming.
September is celebrated as the Ozone Month, with all countries mounting campaigns to mitigate climate change.
Overall, the Philippines contributes less than one percent to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), long tagged as the culprit behind the El Niño and La Niña weather phenomena.
Celebrations will kick off this Wednesday, September 1, with Paje leading DENR officials and those from partner agencies in having their service vehicles’ mobile air-conditioners (MAC) tested for ozone-and climate-friendliness.
The tests will be conducted by the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) at the DENR compound in Quezon City.
Paje has committed to reduce pollution levels in the metropolis by 30 percent this year, noting that it can be done since 80 percent of GHG emissions come from ancient motor vehicles.
“Fighting air pollution will simultaneously improve our people’s health and reduce global warming,” he said. “Let us show to the world how Filipinos are taking concrete steps to address the issues of global warming and climate change.”
All car owners are likewise urged to have their own vehicles’ MACs tested for free at the DENR grounds on September 1, or during the simultaneous nationwide roadside MAC testing on September 16.
As signatory to the Kyoto and Montreal Protocols, international treaties which both aim to reduce GHGs in the atmosphere to slash global warming, government has required owners of vehicles with models prior to 1999 to use environment-friendly refrigerants in their MACs before renewing their annual registration.
EMB Director Juan Miguel Cuna said MAC servicing is the largest consumer of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), a GHG believed to be harmful to the ozone layer.
MAC servicing consumes as much as 933 tons of ozone depleting potential (ODP).
“Using ozone-friendly MACs will definitely reduce the amount of CFC released into the atmosphere,” he said.
The EMB’s Philippine Ozone Desk will also sign on the same day a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Philippine Postal Corp. (PhilPost) for the printing of commemorative stamps depicting the 25th anniversary of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer
Around 49,000 stamps are set to be issued in the last quarter this year.
On September 13, the DENR will sign a contract with Delsa Chemicals and Multi-Products, Inc. as the former launches the “Collection, Transport and Storage of Recovered Refrigerants from Service Shop Voucher Grantees and Chiller Owners under the National CFC Phase-out Plan (NCPP) Project.”
Under the contract, Delsa Chemicals will undertake the collection, transport and storage of refrigerants recovered from machines provided in 2007 by the NCPP’s voucher system to over 2,500 service shops.
With the celebration of International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer on September 16, an Annual Forum on the Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) Phase-out Program will gather representatives of partner agencies, dealers and importers to discuss the status of ODS in the country.
This year’s theme is “Ozone Layer Protection: Governance and Compliance at their Best.”
Published in Manila Bulletin August 31, 2010.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Reaping rewards from protecting forests
| FOR DECADES, they have regarded the forests as their lifeblood, and have never lusted for the big volume of logs and lumber they could extract. Instead, they have harvested only fruits and other edibles from the wild to be processed for selected markets. As responsible stewards, they get just enough to help keep the balance in the ecosystem. This is the way of the indigenous Ikalahan (population: 49,000). Home to most tribal members is the forested community of Imugan village in Sta. Fe, Nueva Vizcaya. Their place is part of the Caraballo Mountains, which link the Cordillera and the Sierra Madre mountain ranges in northern Luzon. During a recent national indigenous peoples’ conference on ancestral land rights in Baguio City, the Ikalahan have been cited for their “ecosystems approach” toward managing and protecting their land and resources. “We view ourselves as part of ecosystems, so what we do to one species affects the rest of us,” their leader, Sammy Balinhawang, said. The meeting was organized by the Tebtebba and the Philippine Traditional Knowledge Network, two nongovernment groups helping to educate indigenous peoples about their rights as enshrined in the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (Ipra) and in international conventions, such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Sustainability The Ikalahan have been asserting that, as part of their collective right, the land where they now live and its resources belong to the community. “But alongside this right, we know our responsibility: To protect our watersheds and every nook and cranny of our domain,” Balinhawang said. The livelihoods the forests provide are the main incentives for doing their responsibility. For example, water from the mountains irrigate their farms, which produce food for their families and bring income if they sell their surplus. By asserting this collective right and the livelihood and other benefits they derive from the forests, the Ikalahan have stopped government plans to reroute a national road that would have cut through their community. But they cannot expand their farms and pasture lands because the ecosystems of their community would suffer from imbalance. So they resort to gathering wild fruits, processing and selling them as guava jams, wines and vinegar from wild berries, and dried bignay (which resembles raisin). The products have reached not only markets in Metro Manila and other cities but some overseas markets as well. The Ikalahan harvest only 15 percent of the wild fruits. The rest belong to the bats, birds and other wild animals that help propagate the very sources of their food and income. With seedlings from their nurseries, they have reforested areas under threat of going barren. They cull or remove disease-infested trees and replace them. To safeguard the ecosystems and keep their food chain clean, the Ikalahan have long maintained a natural and organic system of raising vegetables and other crops. Still in poverty Despite the community-based enterprises they have started, the Ikalahan have remained poor, Balinhawang said. In some developed countries, people who maintain watersheds, which supply the water needs of lower communities, are given incentives and monetary rewards by their governments. Not in the Ikalahan community, whose well maintained watersheds and headwaters also supply the water needs of wealthier lowland communities in Central Luzon. Since 1994, the Ikalahan, through the Kalahan Educational Foundation, have explored the possibility of engaging in carbon trading. An American Protestant missionary, Rev. Dr. Delbert Rice, helped establish the foundation. At the same time, they have begun protecting another 10,000 hectares of forests for the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) project by the UN Environment Program (UNEP). The REDD, according to the UNEP, is designed to support countries “to develop best practices for avoided deforestation and forest carbon stock retention initiatives.” It encourages environmental and social safeguards through improving community livelihoods, conserving biodiversity and protecting water resources. As responsible stewards, Ikalahan folk harvest only a certain amount to help keep the balance in their ecosystems Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer August 25, 2010. |
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Tiwi: The birthplace of Geothermal Energy
By HENRYLITO D. TACIO
August 14, 2010, 10:33am
Power from the steam
In the past, hot springs were the main attractions of Tiwi, a second class municipality in the province of Albay.
“The popularity of these hot springs has diminished in recent years due to the nearby construction of a geothermal plant,” current mayor Jaime Villanueva told the visiting members of the Philippine Network of Environmental Journalists.
History records show the Philippine Congress, recognizing the potential and benefits of geothermal development, enacted Republic Act No. 5092, otherwise known as the Geothermal Law in 1967. That same year, Dr. Arturo P. Alcaraz and his team came to Tiwi and lit a light bulb using steam-powered electricity coming from Mount Malinao.
That was the first geothermal power generated in the Philippines. By 1982, Tiwi became the world’s first water-dominated geothermal system to produce more than 160 megawatts (MW). Its currently installed capacity is 289 MW.
Electric power is measured in units called watt. A watt is equal to one joule (the quantity of energy that can be generated from a fuel such as oil or gas) per second. The total generating capacity of a power plant is measured in kilowatt (KW) for 1,000 watts, and megawatt (MW) for one million watts.
“Geothermal energy offers significant environmental and economic advantages over fossil fuels in generating electricity,” said the Chevron Geothermal Philippines Holdings, Inc. (CGPHI) in a statement. “As a renewable energy source, geothermal energy creates significantly less greenhouse gasses.”
Greenhouses gases include carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, chlorofluorocarbons from air conditioners and refrigerators, methane gas from landfills and rice fields, and the nitrogen compound, nitrous oxide, from burning fossil fuels and fertilizers. Global warming is believed to be caused by increased concentrations of these gases emitted by human activities into the atmosphere.
Geothermal energy also offers substantial economic benefits. Since 1977, geothermal energy has saved the Philippine government over US$7 billion in costs associated with the import of fossil fuels.
You can have a good view of the Tiwi Geothermal Power Plant by visiting the Naglagbong Geothermal People’s Park (more popularly known as Nag Park). According to locals, the park used to have hot springs, vents, boiling mud pools, and silica center mounds. People visiting the place would boil eggs from steaming holes.
A hydrothermal eruption in 1980 ended the park’s thermal activities. Since then, it has been transformed into a park with the combined efforts of the local government, National Power Corporation, and Philippine Geothermal, Inc.
Tiwi is known not only because of the geothermal plant, but also for its coron, those pottery products that are shaped in different forms and sizes either in round or hexagonal shapes.
This traditional industry can be traced back to the early part of the 17th century when the sticky clay dug from the hilly place near the sea was discovered to have various uses. Early settlers formed them in different shapes and used them for cooking, eating, or drinking.
Today, making coron (a Bicol dialect which means “claypot” or “pottery”) is one of the good sources of income for the people. At barangayPutsan, you can visit Philippine Ceramics, a big warehouse cum factory of these products. Visitors are allowed and you can even take pictures and see how the pots are actually made. You can get a glimpse of its modern oven used for cooking art-formed clays. There is also a display area for the finished products, where you can select and buy.
It was good that during our visit, the town was celebrating the Coron Festival. Actually, it is a showcase of events highlighted by a street presentation participated in by the different public and private schools and various sectors. The celebration is capped by a long maritime procession of different local sea vessels passing the Albay Gulf going to the quiet barangay Joroan, the home of the miraculous image.
Carol Carullo, the town’s tourism official, says there are several places of interest in Tiwi. For one, there’s the Bugsukan Falls, a good picnic site for most travelers. However, it can only be reached by watercraft.
For the thrill fanatics and adventure loving visitors, there's Busayan Falls. “The route is beautiful but can be challenging for those who are not familiar with the place,” the tourism brochure states. Travel time is about 10 to 12 hours; an overnight stay in a camp is required.
The tourism office shares these tips when coming to Tiwi: Light casual wear is always practical when touring around. Bring warm garments during rainy days (July to September) or when visiting mountainous areas where nights can be cool and chilly. On hot summer months (March to May), wear a hat and a pair of sunglasses. Carry insect repellant, bottled water, and a flashlight when visiting remote and forested areas.
Carullo also advised visitors to register at the Visitor’s Information Center when visiting tourist spots “for better facilitation and assistance.”
Tiwi has such a colorful history. Wikipedia shares this information: “Before the establishment of the municipality of Tiwi by the Spaniards, the present poblacion and the barangays of Baybay, Libjo, Cararayan, and Naga were part of the Pacific Ocean, and the hill shared by barangays Bolo and Putsan was an islet. A volcanic eruption of the now dormant Mount Malinao filled up this part of the sea joining the hill of Bolo and Putsan with the mainland of Luzon.
“This place began as a barrio of Malinao before it was formally organized as a politically independent pueblo in 1696. As a Catholic parish, it was administered by a secular priest under the then Diocese of Nueva Caceres, now an archdiocese. In its primeval stages, it had some 1,105 houses, a parish church, a community-funded primary school, and a cemetery outside the town proper.”
How did it get its name? In 1658, Spanish Franciscan friars planted the cross near the shore north of Malinao. The friars called the place Tigbi, after an abundant local plant. The name later evolved into Tivi, and finally evolved to its present name Tiwi.
Tiwi is located about 300-kilometer southeast of Manila. It is accessible by air from Manila (travel time is 55 minutes). Both Philippines Airlines and Cebu Pacific fly daily from Manila to Legazpi City, the province’s capital.
From the Legazpi airport, visitors can take a tricycle to the Bus/Filcab terminal bound to Tabaco City. From Tabaco City, they can ride a jeepney bound for Tiwi.
There are also air-conditioned buses plying the Manila-Tabaco route. Travel time is about 10 hours. Terminals of these buses are located at the Araneta Center, Cubao, Pedro Gil Street, Manila, and EDSA, Pasay City.
Published in Manila Bulletin August 20, 2010.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Islanders see renewable energy as solution to daily brownouts
SAN MIGUEL, CATANDUANES —The daily brownouts, especially those that occur in the mid of work or in the deep of the night, have so numbed residents and local businessmen that only silent curses could be heard. This month, they are hopeful relief is coming as two new privately-owned hydropower plants begin delivering on the promise of reliable and cheaprenewable energy. The multimillion-peso power generation facilities of the Sunwest Water and Electric Co. Inc. (Suweco) will be switched on this month in the towns of San Miguel and Caramoran. An affiliate of the Sunwest Group of Companies chaired by Bicolano businessman Elizaldy S. Co, Suweco intends to supply half of the island’s energy requirement of 6.5 megawatts (MW). The company’s P314-million hydropower plant in Barangay Solong in San Miguel has a rated capacity of 2.1 MW while its P213-million plant in Barangay Hitoma in Caramoran has a rated capacity of 1.5 MW. Jose Sylvestre Natividad, Suweco president, said these facilities will help alleviate the decade-long power problem in Catanduanes. According to engineer Edwin Tatel, cluster head of the Catanduanes Grid of the National Power Corp.’s Small Power Utilities Group, the maximum system demand last July was 7 MW during peak hours, with an off-peak demand of 5 MW. Catanduanes, with its 232,000 inhabitants, has a power demand that grows 10 percent annually. Its local power cooperative, the First Catanduanes Electric Cooperative Inc., has 33,000 member-consumers. Power supply Presently, Tael says, the grid’s generating system consists of two diesel power plants in Bato and Viga, the Balongbong hydropower plant, Power Barge 110, four mobile gensets rented from Monark and a 3.6-MW bunker-fuel genset operated by the private company Catanduanes Power Generation Inc. However, of the total rated capacity of nearly 20 MW, only half is being generated due to frequent shutdowns of the old diesel gensets. The three-decade-old Balongbong hydropower plant, on the other hand, produces only 1 MW out of its rated capacity of 1.8 MW due to low water intake at the forebay as a result of the prolonged El Niño phenomenon. Last summer, it was operated for only three hours a day as it experienced the lowest water level since it was built by a Chinese company in 1978 during the Marcos regime. Tatel says that at present, 70 percent of the total power generation of the grid is produced by fuel-fed power plants, with Balongbong accounting for the remaining 30 percent. With the commissioning of its two hydropower plants, Suweco will seek to overturn this ratio into 60:40 in favor of hydroelectric power. Learning affected Agnes Doblon, principal of the Paraiso Elementary School in San Miguel town, says the power outages affect the learning environment of the students. She says whenever brownouts occur, teachers and students would grope in the dark but they could not cancel classes or the students would be left behind. “For the past two years, we didn’t have electricity during our graduation rites. Our students marched without music. We called out names of the graduates without a sound system,” Doblon tells the media who were covering Sunwest’s distribution of bags and educational supplies last July 22. There was also a brownout that same day. On the other hand, Vice Mayor Mary Ann Teves says the hydropower facilities would be a key to development in the fifth-class municipality. “We are thankful because the Suweco power plant will not only provide a stable supply of electricity, it could also bring revenues to our town. Soon, when power is stable, more investments will come. We will no longer be a sleepy town,” Teves says. Mitigating climate change Natividad says that since the hydropower plants produce renewable energy, it will help save the environment and mitigate the impact of climate change. Tatel agrees, as the power to be generated by the company’s hydropower plants would help reduce the national government’s fuel subsidy of P79 million a year for the Catanduanes grid’s rental of the four Monark mobile gensets. The government has called for individual power producers or private investors to venture into renewable energy production through hydroelectric, windmill, solar and other means. In 2012, another hydropower plant with a rated capacity of 2.4 megawatts will be opened in the villages of Progreso and Paraiso in San Miguel, Catanduanes. The commissioning of the Suweco projects would likewise allow NPC to decommission its rented gensets by the end of the year and its diesel power plants in the next two years. Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer August 15, 2010. |
