by Sunday Post
While big dams in Luzon are awash and still flooding some areas brought about by tropical storm landfall, irrigation dams in Bohol are drying up due to prolonged hot and dry weather and they need cloud-seeding to produce rain.
Cloud seeding is a “technique of stimulating or enhancing precipitation by distributing dry ice crystals or silver iodide particles over developing storm clouds in a specific area of the atmosphere.â€
Gov. Edgar Chatto last Friday said in a weekly press conference appeared inclined to push through with the proposal of the NIA for rain-making through cloud seeding.
In a visit to Pilar town, some parts of waterbeds of Malinao Dam that is supposed to service almost 5,000 hecatres including those in nearby towns, are already exposed, creating island-like grounds.
But the scenario in Bayongan Dam in San Miguel town and Capayas Dam in Ubay town are still manageable, Engr. Olimpio Galagala, regional head of engineering division, said in interview. These two big dams (Bayongan and Capayas) serve as big catchment for rain with no major river as main source unlike Malinao Dam.
The hot and dry weather have taken toll to rice seedlings already planted in some rain-fed paddies that bore cracks in some parts of Sierra-Bullones town due to absence of rain for past few weeks.
The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has moved fast to save those planted rice farms from further ruin by proposing cloud seeding activity, Galagala said.
He said that NIA together with other agencies plans to launch cloud-seeding somewhere in the Malinao Dam area for the needed rain..
He said that NIA regional director Diosdado Rosales based here has urged the provincial government for help to cause the proposal apparently to rescue farmers whose rice farms might be at high risks.
He said that NIA’s target of some 3,500 has., only 3,100 has. have been planted watered by Malinao dam.
Right now NIA is monitoring the water level of Malinao Dam. It has now becoming “critical†since it is already below the normal of 152 meters. The latest of this (water level) is somewhere 146 and 148 meters. When it goes down further to the level of 146 it would be critical situation, Galagala said.
“China used cloud seeding in Beijing just before the 2008 Olympic Games in order to clear the air of pollution, but there are disputes regarding the Chinese claims.†Wikipedia said. (RVO)
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