Cagayan will have to activate the multiple uses of water systems to ease the severe effects of the El Niño drought.

“While water for agriculture is essential, we will also activate the multiple uses of this scarce resource for home gardens, poultry and livestock raising, aquaculture and rural enterprise to enable communities to ease the impact of the drought,” Jack Enrile, senior economic adviser to Cagayan province, said Sunday.

Enrile made the recommendation as the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration or Pagasa predicted that Northern Luzon, particularly Cagayan Valley, will experience temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius from May to June.

“We must expect the worse since the arrival of summer has yet to be officially declared and already hotter weather is predicted,” he said.

“Irrigation systems already provide multiple uses anyway and it is just a matter of maximizing its beneficiaries,” he said. “We must optimize tapping water from upper catchments down to estuaries and coastal wetlands though multi-purpose reservoirs.”

“This is particularly important as poorer farmers are affected most because they cannot afford irrigation service,” Enrile said.

At the household level, people collect water for backyard gardens, livestock and home enterprises while irrigation canals may also fill village reservoirs for domestic supply or provide water for fish, he pointed out.

“Even if irrigation systems have been designed for field crops, they can also be used for additional uses such as for cattle or backyard irrigation,” he added.

“Integrated water resource management should be strengthened at this time of the El Niño crisis,” Enrile added. “Irrigation systems are often the only water providers during this severe weather and it should benefit all stakeholders, not just farmers although they need water more at this time.”

Already, fish and chickens have reportedly died in La Union and Pangasinan provinces because water sources have dried up due to the hot weather even as the Department of Health has warned of the ill effects on health.

“Proper water management is the key in easing the impact of drought,” he said. “We must ensure that crop damage in Cagayan is minimal as the Philippines is expected to lose at least P3 billion worth of crops such as rice and corn from the El Niño phenomenon.”