Batac City Vice Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta called on the public last April 3 to help conserve water by all means, particularly during the summer months of April and May.

Nalupta made the call during a forum held at MMSU Teatro Ilocandia conducted by members of the National Panel of Technical Experts (NPTE) of the Climate Change Commission (CCC), in cooperation with the Department of National Defense, the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte and MMSU.

Nalupta admitted that Batac residents are now experiencing water shortage, particularly during the summer months. He said that in order to ease the impact of the problem, the local government unit of Batac has started constructing small water impounding projects and launched the “Save Quiaoit River,” in which residents are urged to go up the mountains and watershed areas from June 12 to October to plant at least 20,000 trees every year.

The program is being observed by Batac residents as their simple contribution to help improve the current state of groundwater here.

“The responsibility to save our environment is collectively ours. We are part of the problem so we must take part in the solution,” Nalupta said, as he enjoined all participants of the NPTE forum to take an active role in helping conserve water.

In the same forum, Lourdes Tibig, a meteorologist and a member of the NPTE presented the climate trends in Region 1, which is characterized by dry and wet seasons.

She reported that based on analysis of available data in the selected cities of Dagupan, Baguio, Vigan and Laoag from 1951 to 2013 and from 1981 to 2010, there are increasing trends in mean temperature except in Dagupan which have increasing trends in rainfall.

With the recorded annual temperature anomalies at the Laoag weather station, Tibig said proper mitigating measures must be implemented to avoid its impact on livelihood and its people.

“The temperature rises fast here. The rain (pattern) also changed. The projection based on Science is that we might experience typhoons that are as powerful as or even stronger than Yolanda. So we need to prepare for that,” Tibig said. --(R.E Andres)