EDITORIAL

Water shortage becoming an alarming phenomenon – DENR

It’s a dress rehearsal for what may happen in a waterless future. Early this year, human waste contamination of the water supply recently caused a diarrhea outbreak that claimed the lives of three persons and downed 369 in Loon, Bohol .

In 2003, five people died and more than 500 residents in Tondo, Manila were rushed to various hospitals due to a cholera outbreak caused by water contamination, according to a report by journalist Henrylito D. Tacio.

Tacio quoted Dr. Peter H. Gleick, director of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security as saying “All of these diseases are associated with our failure to provide clean water. I think it’s terribly bleak.”

The government admits that a water crisis looms. This, when the United Nations recommend that all citizens have access to at least 20 liters of clean water every day, and that those who cannot afford to pay get it for free.

A study released recently by the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources estimated that only 1,907 cubic meters of fresh water are available to each Filipino a year. This puts the Philippines at the low end among Southeast Asian countries with fresh water availability. Indeed, the DENR warns of a water crisis by 2010.

The uncoordinated and uncontrolled exploitation of our country’s water resources has had a major impact on the availability of clean and safe water at present, and has already jeopardized the supply of this resource for future generations, Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes had admitted.

A recent Asian Development Bank study shows that at least 431 towns outside of Metro Manila are without water. The Japan International Cooperation Agency lists nine major cities as water-critical areas: Metro Manila, Cebu, Davao , Baguio , Angeles, Bacolod , Iloilo , Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga.

The DENR contends there was an increase in the country’s overall water supply from 1990 to 2002. However, the coverage declined from 81.4 percent in 1990 to 80 percent in 2002 largely because of population increases.

In Metro Manila and Cebu , over-extraction of groundwater due to high population density has resulted in the lowering of the water table and a consequent increase in water salinity.

Filipinos consume 310 to 507 million cubic meters of water every day. A Filipino household of five needs at least 120 liters per days to meet basic needs for drinking, food preparation, cooking and cleaning up, washing and personal hygiene, laundry and house cleaning.

Stark inequalities, between provinces, emerge in a report released by the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau. While 99 percent of the families obtain water from a safe water source in Abra, only 39 percent of the families in Apayao have such a luxury.

Ninety-six families of every 100 in Central Luzon fetch their water from safe sources but it is way lower in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao where only 35 families out of every 100 have potable water supply.

Water and sanitation go hand in hand – and disparities among provinces is common. While 100 percent of the families in Ilocos Norte and Batanes have sanitary toilets, only 26 and 12 percent of the families in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, respectively, have sanitary latrines.

The biggest user of water in the Philippines is agriculture. In fact, it is responsible for more than 70 percent of all water use. Ramon B. Alikpala, executive director of the National Water Resources Board had said it is because drainage flows from agriculture are polluted due to the use of pesticides and freshwater, less fresh water is available for drinking and industrial use.

Pollution is a major reason for the water shortage. The DENR admits that only 36 percent of the river systems in the country can be classified as possible sources of public water supply. And as many as 50 of the 421 rivers can be considered as “biologically dead.”

The denudation of the country’s watersheds has aggravated the problem. According to the DENR, 90 percent of the country’s 99 watershed areas are “hydrologically critical” due to their degraded condition.

Massive destruction of the once-productive and forested watersheds caused by
loggers and uncontrolled mining, overgrazing, agricultural expansion and industrialization – all have contributed to water depletion.

“On the watershed level, the forest cover varies from almost none to 50 percent,” notes a UN Food and Agriculture Organization report on Sustainable Forest Management in the Philippines . Take a look at the Mt. Data forest watershed, note its growing baldness and bleed.