By .B.B
For Horizon

We all should act now on President Tommy Remengesau’s recent public advice to begin conserving water in preparation for what the weather experts say could be a very long dry season (El Nino) this year that might affect many islands and countries, including Palau, in the Western Pacific region. The spate of thick hazes that enveloped much of Palau in recent days are good signs and warning that we are located in an area of the Pacific region that could suffer from the aftermaths of many catastrophic natural disasters (Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Dry Weather, Volcanic eruptions, etc) that may occur many hundreds or even thousands of miles away from our shores. As precautionary measures, as the President said, we should do what we can to avert/minimize the effects of these disasters should they come our way.
Palau could suffer a great deal of harm from a prolonged drought, which has been predicted by weather experts, to hit our region of the Pacific in the months ahead. But we are not exactly novices on matters relating to droughts or "kansoke" as we call them locally. We all have gone through many of these "dry seasons" in the past, and we all know very well how they can make our normal, daily lives miserable.
We all remember the times when we did not have regular, running water for cooking, cleaning, showering, and for flushing toilets. These inconveniences are still fresh in our minds. We can recall how some people tried to construct or buy standby water tanks to provide them with water during those dry seasons. That was smart thinking on their part back then. We should now realize, however, that, in addition to our past efforts, we all must use judiciously the waters in our public water systems and those stored in the national reservoirs so that they may last throughout the entire duration of any El Nino period that might befall us.
Any prolonged dry season we might have in the months ahead can also present other very serious problems for the country aside from the lack of potable waters that we would need every day. During the dry weather in 2003, a number of uncontrolled fires started at various locations on Babeldaob. Many of these fires spread to the Compact Road areas where they burnt and destroyed many sections of grasses that were planted by Daewoo E&C by hydro seeding method as erosion control measures to protect the slopes on the Compact Road. Daewoo had to appeal to EQPB to help advise the people on Babeldaob not to start fires near the Compact Road Alignments in particular and to refrain from making fires in the jungles of Babeldaob in general.
Some people may have started forest fires to clear their lands for farming, but because of the extremely dry weather those fires were soon out of control and spread to the Compact Road area. Just the same, many of those fires had devastating effects on the grasses that were planted by Daewoo as erosion control for the Compact Road. Other devastating side effects of forest fires during the dry season include (1) destruction of valuable timbers and other important trees in the jungles, and (2) thick muddy water run-offs, when the rains return, that would flow to the open ocean destroying many forms of life in the mangroves, the lagoons and the reefs of Palau.