Home 
CEBU City residents were asked to do their part in conserving water by making their own rainwater catchments.
Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival said making rainwater catchments is useful in light of the prolonged dry spell caused by the El Niño phenomenon.
His appeal came amid a petition filed by ecology lawyers and Cebu university students before the Supreme Court (SC) last Wednesday requiring both the national and local governments to enforce a 21-year-old law requiring the construction of rainwater catchments across the country (see related story).
Republic Act 6716, also known as the Rainwater Collector and Springs Development Law, was issued in 1989 but remains unenforced, the petitioners said.
The Global Legal Action for Climate Change (GLACC) said installing rainwater catchments would help mitigate floodwaters caused by the delayed rainy season due to global warming.
Archival, for his part, said rainwater can help offset demand on the city?s water supply which is severely affected by the dry spell.
In some cases, he said, rainwater is the only immediate available water source in some areas.
He said rainwater catchment can be built using inexpensive local materials like pails, basins, barrels or any container.
Excess rainwater, he said, can be diverted through rainwater catchment ponds that can be dug up in one's property.
Archival explained that rainwater catchments collect and store rainwater for household use, irrigation, water for livestock and even drinking with the use of an aquifier.
Rooftop and groundwater catchment systems are some of the types of rainwater catchments, he said.
Groundwater catchments channel water from a container into a storage facility while rooftop catchment channels rainwater from the roof to the gutters and pipes into a storage facility, the councilor said.
Archival said rainwater catchment can be built using inexpensive local materials like pails, basins, barrels or any container.
Excess rainwater, he said, can be diverted through rainwater catchment ponds that can be dug up in one's property.
The councilor said he uses a swimming pool and fishpond as rainwater catchment.
He also uses a water tank to store ?gray water? or water from laundry and other ?used? water.
Legal figures like Cebu City Regional Trial Court Judge Meinrado Paredes and ecology lawyer Gloria Estenzo-Ramos use rainwater catchments outside their homes.
Paredes said his tank helps save on water consumption and reduce floods in his area.
?Plants grow and bloom much when they are watered with rainwater instead of waters which have clorine in it,? Paredes said.
Ramos said her standby container stores rainwater that can be used to water her plants and wash her car.
Placing fish like tilapia in the pond can prevent mosquito breeding and provide additional food for the table at the same time, Archival said.
The banks of the pond can be planted with vegetables for the family?s consumption, he added.
The stored rainwater can also reduce demand on water tables, or aquifier which are drying up due to the dry spell.
Archival said there is a city ordinance requiring owners of commercial buildings worth half a million pesos to build a rainwater catchment basin. But the councilor said he doubts whether the law is being followed.
Archival said he is still asking school owners, malls, commercial establishments and even households to build their own rainwater catchment basins to offset the dry spell. Reporters Ador Vincent Mayol, Fe Marie D. Dumaboc and Editorial Assistant Ma. Bernadette Parco
