Cloud seeding program to continue despite limited success

The Philippines’ cloud seeding program will continue to be implemented even though one-fifth of all attempts have been successful, the Bureau of Soils and Water Management said. The agency remains “duty-bound to implement the program as long as there are requests for cloud seeding," said Leilani G. Naga, who is in charge of the agency's cloudseeding program. As of March 11, some 221 flights nationwide have already been launched for the cloud-seeding program, even though “only 20 percent or even less had been successful," Naga said. “We’ve been the target of many criticisms as to why we continue to implement this program despite its apparent futility. We put our lives on the line because we have a directive to implement the program," she added. Whenever seedable clouds are sighted, a team launches a sortie but “most of the time, the salts seeded on the clouds melt due to extreme heat," she said. Eleven bags of salt used for every flight are distributed for an hour and a half. Cloudseeding sorties may be undertaken from 10 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon or later depending on the cloud formations. The actual seeding takes only more or less 30 minutes. A sortie costs about P22,400 per hour including the rental fee of the aircraft. Cloud seeding efforts in regions 5 and 9 — Bicol and Zamboanga provinces — have been successful. The program has not been conducted in regions 7 and 8 — Cebu and Eastern Samar — because of the presence of rain in these areas. Operations are currently being undertaken for regions 10, 11, and 12, which primarily are provinces in Mindanao. Similarly, cloudseeding efforts are also being undertaken in Luzon — the Cordillera Administrative Region, regions 3 and 4 and Visayas' region 6. Cloud seeding has recently been conducted in Kudarat, Maitum in Sarangani and in T’boli, South Cotabato after a cloud build-up was noted in the area, Leolito Siase, Water Bureau Area Coordinator for region 12 said. Four provinces of region 12 namely South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, North Cotabato, and Sarangani have formally requested cloud seeding operations in their areas. However, the team was unable to conduct seeding operations owing to the lack of cumulonimbus clouds for the past few weeks while temperature soared 36 degrees Celsius in Buayan, Gen. Santos City. Tall, dense, and usually seen during thunderstorms, cumulonimbus cloud are conducive for cloud seeding. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV