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June is ending and the rains have not yet come. The monsoon season is still far off. Rain fed lowland rice farms cannot be tilled. Some outlying coastal barangays like Canupao are still in the throes of potable water scarcity. Supply from the municipal water system reaches only half of the barrio and it is sporadic.

Households have to stock up water at night. Unless the municipal water works find additional water, Canupao, the third largest barangay of the town will experience continued water scarcity.

The irony is; the Alejawan and Manaba rivers derive their waters from the Jagna watershed. The forests of upland Jagna have enough waters to provide Jagna with water but the mountain ridge from Laca to Lonoy blocks its passage to downtown Jagna. A spring in lower Lonoy called Tubod Ubos can supply the downtown needs but those waters flow toward the Alejawan River, which separates Jagna from Duero.

For a pushing thirty six thousand Jagna population needing fifteen gallons of water per head per day, this would need a water supply of five hundred forty thousand gallons per day. Tubod Ubos could supply this and more. A national water agency said that the supply is greater than the San Pablo, Laguna source.

When a sample from the source was tested in the Water Resource Center in the University of San Carlos, Talamban campus, it passed the criteria for maximum dissolved solids and was free from biological contamination. From the Lonoy elevation, one kagawad said that it could provide a shower bath at the Ilihan shrine. How much more, a water system from that source could supply all the Jagna coastal barangays from Alejawan to Canuba aside from providing several fire hydrants in the commercial area.

Because the municipal water system cannot adequately supply their needs, some households drill deep wells. However, some are not so lucky, they have drilled dry holes. An Australian friend building a house for his in laws - he married a Filipina here - drilled a well for water in the yard. He used two sticks as divining rods roaming all over the compound until the two sticks crossed. He bade his in laws to drill the well on that spot and true enough; they struck an aquifer thirty meters down.

Water divination is an ability found only in few individuals. There is no scientific explanation for that gift. It is more of an art rather than science. Perhaps it is in the realms of the ESP. A Jesuit priest from Ateneo University was said to have that capability. Water divining is also used in the drier parts of Australia. No hardheaded scientist would recommend such methods.

Water found in deep wells here is hard water. This means it has plenty of dissolved solids like potassium and calcium carbonates. Scales found in the sides of kettles and kalderos are the solids, which are separated from the water when boiled. Even arenolas show stalagmites. A hospital in Cebu City, when admitting a patient from Bohol with urinary tract troubles would immediately conclude that he is from Jagna. That is why; sterilized drinking water is popular here. They are touted to be free of dissolved solids.

In urban areas like the greater Metro Manila, waters from rivers are filtered, sterilized and aerated before it is piped out for distribution. Sterilized, bottled waters are not popular there. Unless one goes out to the boondocks. Here we cannot afford such water treatment since it is so expensive. We have to be contented with using bottled water for drinking purposes and deep well water for washing.

As today is St. John's Day, prepare to be drenched, not by just rainwater but also other waters. The drenching practice was once confined only to San Juan, the city of Erap. It was spread here by bums trying to pose as sophisticated city slickers. You can only hope that the water thrown is sanitary. Better still, stay indoors. If you are watered like wilted tangkong do not tell us we did not warn you.

Bohol Sunday Post
June 24, 2007

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