Broken Window Syndrome! PEOPLE DROWN IN FLOODS BUT DROUGHT HURTS AGRI

There is this story of a man who visited his friend’s house and noticed a broken window which he pointed out to his host.

“Oh, that? It’s been there. I’ve gotten used to it I hardly noticed it at all,” was the reply of the house owner.

This is the Broken Window Syndrome, an inexplicable crack in the human character which clouds his appreciation of the things around him because he has gotten used to seeing these everyday of his life..

Many of us, Filipinos are afflicted with this syndrome.

Consider this:

The Philippines is one of the very few countries in the world with pronounced wet and dry seasons.

During the wet season, rains and typhoons, in the northern parts of the country, pummel the country for almost four months every year.

Rivers overflow and floods would inundate the fields. People and animals even drown in the floods.

Yet, when the dry season starts, farmers have a hard time sourcing water for their fields thus limiting production.

Worse, in extended dry spells and the occasional El Niño, people go thirsty and hungry and the economy is adversely affected.

This leads our economic and development planners to say there is no hope in Philippine Agriculture and the best and most cost-effective way of solving the problem is just import the needed food supplies.

Rice, pork, chicken, beef, cooking oil, mungbeans, coffee, cacao and, for Heaven’s sake, even “Langka!”

We are a country of 30-million hectares of rich and fertile soil and awash with water, yet we could not even produce enough food for ourselves.

Check this out:

Israel has an area of 2.2-million hectares, mostly arid and desert land, with a few rivers and only about three or four rainfalls every year.

Yet, they produce food more than what they need so they export to nearby countries and also to Europe.

The difference?

They value what they do not have while we squander what we have in abundance – Water!

Israel has one of the most advanced Water Management and Conservation Programs that they even recycle water flushed from their toilets and make it potable, although it is just used for irrigation.

Us?

We allow water from our rivers and creeks to just flow to the ocean and blame God during El Niño and long droughts.

The El Niño will not hurt us if only we have a viable Water Management Program just as Israel, which virtually has drought all-year-round, has shown us.

A National Water Management and Conservation Program must be activated and funded to include forest conservation, watershed protection, small dams and water catchments and renewable and sustainable irrigation systems.

We have to address the Broken Window Syndrome which has long afflicted us and stunted our growth as a nation.

We have to learn to appreciate and utilize what God has given us.

The Philippines is one of the most blessed country in the world but we have to stop looking out through the Broken Window and look deep inside us.

Unless we do this, we will forever be a country of ironies.

#ConservePreserveWater!

#ProtectOurForestsWatersheds!

(Photos attached here were taken during my visit to the flooded plains of Agusan Valley in 2017 and the Kidapawan Massacre where farmers who asked for rice from government were shot and killed during a long drought in 2016. Photos of drought affected farms were downloaded from public websites.)