STRESSING that water crisis is real because of the worsening El Niño phenomenon, Senator Imee Marcos called on local government units, including Dagupan City, to launch water conservation campaign in their respective areas.

Speaking at a press conference at CSI Stadia, Senator Marcos said Region 1, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon are currently reeling under the impact of El Niño.

Marcos keynoted the two-day Dagupan City Women’s Summit in celebration of the Women’s Month at CSI Stadia where she called for women empowerment not only in science, education, politics, sports and in other spheres of development.

She cited the local government of Dagupan headed by Mayor Belen Fernandez for taking the threat of El Niño seriously by organizing a Task Force that could help mitigate its impact to ensure enough water for the homes and fishponds where the city’s number one agricultural product, bangus, grow.

She warned that El Niño will persist till next year and called on the Department of Agriculture to intensify the construction of water impounding reservoirs to conserve water from the rains for use in the farms during the dry season.

Noting that water levels of most dams are already lower, Marcos said construction of more small water impounding dams will be more practical in rice producing areas such as Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte and Central Luzon.

Marcos said with this year’s lessons from El Niño, the DA must coordinate with the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, Laguna to ask for drought-resistant seeds and plants that could be planted during the dry season.

She admitted that one positive development from El Nino is the vast mango production in Pangasinan, particularly San Carlos City; Ilocos Norte and Zambales. (Leonardo Micua)

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