The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council on Friday disclosed that eight provinces in Luzon are already experiencing a dry spell as the El Niño phenomenon is slowly but surely making its presence felt in the country.

NDRRMC executive director Undersecretary Ariel Francisco Nepomuceno said that Apayao, Bataan, Cagayan, Cavite, Ilocos Norte, Kalinga, Palawan and Zambales are already seeing signs of drought.

According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, drought means three consecutive months of way below-normal rainfall — more than 60 percent reduction from average — or five consecutive months of below-normal which is 21 to 60 percent reduction from the average rainfall.

Nepomuceno, meantime, said that by April, based on the weather bureau’s projection, drought will be felt in almost the entire Philippines, except for some Mindanao areas.

“When April comes, there will be more than 50 provinces; it’s like the whole Philippines, except in some areas of Mindanao, 56 provinces, so we are trying to prepare for it,” said Nepomuceno, adding that the government should focus on long-term solutions, especially since the country will again experience this weather phenomenon.

“It is necessary that while we are pushing for short-term solutions, we can provide them, we can lay them out correctly, and it is important that we can do the projects that are long-term solutions correctly because this will happen again and again; if not, we will just survive,” he added.

The NDRRMC official said that the Department of Agriculture has already fixed 843 kilometers of irrigation canals and deep wells and conducted cloud seeding.