Last Session Tonight! Water Conservation, Management: Learning From Israel’s Experience

Tonight, Israel’s International Cooperation Agency, MASHAV, will conduct the last session of a 5-Segment Online Course on Water Management and Conservation for Mindanao Governors, Mayors and decision makers, including the Governor of Northern Samar.

This program is part of my major advocacies as a former Secretary of Agriculture and the Mindanao Development Authority to increase awareness on a very alarming problem in the country – our forest denudation and very poor water conservation and management.

Ngayon na bumabagyo, binabaha tayo but a few weeks from now when the natural precipitation ceases, magkaka-problema na naman tayo sa ating water supply.

Tayo lang ang bansa na binabaha at minsan may nalulunod pa ngunit nagkaproblema dahil kulang ng tubig ang ating mga sakahan at mga dam tulad ng Angat pagdating ng tagtuyot.

Ang dami nating mga buhay na ilog, sapa at lawa pero wala tayong sapat na irigasyon para sa ating mga sakahan.

In contrast, Israel, a country of 2.2-million hectares (even smaller than the area of the provinces of Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur), with a rainfall of only 360-mm per year compared to our 4,000-mm, efficiently manages their water resources and is a major agricultural exporter.

Earlier this year, I asked the Israeli Embassy in the Philippines, in my capacity as Chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority, to support our Water Conservation and Management Advocacy in Mindanao by sharing with Mindanao’s Governors, Mayors and decision makers their experience in water management.

That request was granted and a 5-Session Online Course was started participated in by Governors, Mayors and decision makers of Mindanao, including one Governor from the Visayas who begged that he be included in the activity – Gov. Edwin Ongchuan of Northern Samar.

Tonight will be the last and final session and while I have resigned from MinDA to pursue a quest for a seat in the Philippine Senate, I will be joining the session as a participant.

After this course, selected Governors and Mayors, including Gov. Ongchuan and his mayors, will be invited by the Israeli Government to visit Israel to see for themselves how the Israelis manage their very precious resource – water.

This is a giant step in my advocacy to heighten the awareness of our leaders to the importance of re-greening our mountains and of management and conserving our water resources for agriculture and our national survival.

I have always been fascinated by that old saying: “Good Mountain, Good Water, Good Life.”

Everything starts with water. Without water, there is no agriculture and there would be no life.

#FoodGrowsWhereWaterFlows!

#KungGustoMaramingParaan!

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!

(First photo shows the online class conducted by MASHAV while the other photos were downloaded from public websites.)