In which country where diarrhea remains a leading killer of children, where water-borne diseases are more common than sanitary toilets, and where farmers cannot water their own crops?
The answer: the Philippines. ”Dirty water kills. Ironically, the Philippines is a water-rich country and yet we cannot supply our people with adequate water,” laments Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr.
In the 1950s, the Philippines had as much as 9,600 cubic meters of clean water per person, according to Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero, former head of the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development. Four decades later, Filipinos must make do with little more than a third for that volume – 3,300 cubic meters per capita.
Today, the Philippines ranks second from the lowest among Southeast Asian countries in terms of per capita water availability per year with only 1,907 cubic meters. Thailand is at the bottom, with 1,854 cubic meters. Vietnamese have more than twice what Filipinos get: 4,591 cubic meters.
“The image of a water-rich Philippines is a mirage,” Gregory C. Ira, former head of the water equity in the lifescape and landscape study (WELLS) of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction, once pointed out. ”There is a water crisis in the Philippines, one of the wettest countries of Southeast Asia.”
A World Bank report said that areas where the per capita water supply drops below 1,700 cubic meters per year experience water stress while areas with per capita water supply below 1,000 cubic meters per year are already suffering from water scarcity. Four river basins that are undergoing the latter category are Pampanga, Agno, Pasig-Laguna, and the island of Cebu.
The water crisis is more transparent in Metro Manila, home to more than 10 million people. ”For many residents in Metro Manila, coping with a ‘water supply crisis’ has been part of their daily woes for years,” says the databank and research center of the IBON Foundation Inc.
Metro Manila was one of the nine major cities listed as “water-critical areas” in a study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency in 1991. The other eight cities were Metro Cebu, Davao, Baguio, Angeles, Bacolod, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga.
“Metro Manila is currently experiencing water deficits,” the World Bank report states. ”Although for some cities like Baguio, which have no shortfall considering current demand, it is know that major water shortages do occur during the summer.”
At least 17 million Filipinos today have no access to adequate and safe drinking water. ”(About) 31 percent of illnesses in the country are water-related due to lack of clean drinking water supply and efficient sanitary facilities,” said Rep. Bernadette R. Herrera-Dy of Bagong Henerasyon Party List.
In 24 provinces, one of every five residents quaffs water from dubious sources, the Philippine Human Development Report says.
These provinces are : Sulu, Maguindanao, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, Masbate, Zamboanga del Norte and Sur, Negros Oriental and Occidental, Sultan Kudarat, Palawan, Camarines Norte, Leyte, Misamis Occidental, Apayao, Quezon, North Cotabato, Bukidnon, Iloilo, Guimaras, Agusan del Sur, Nueva Vizcaya, Ilocos Norte and Benguet.
Several factors contribute to water shortage, including variability in climate, demographic patterns, and unsustainable water-use patterns. In some urban centers of the Philippines where water is available, 50 per cent never reaches the designated consumers due to leakage, theft and poor management.
These identified problems are compounded by the degradation of water resource base.
For instance, many of the country’s largest cities are located in watersheds (also called drainage basin) where all available water is being used.
“Land use and vegetative cover in the watershed are very important because they affect water flow and water quality,” explains Patrick Durst, senior forestry officer of the regional office of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Bangkok, Thailand.
One indicator of a good watershed is a healthy forest. “This is because forests can help to relegate the flow of water,” explains Durst. A recent report released by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said that 90 percent of the 99 watershed areas in the country are “hydrologically critical” due to their degraded physical condition as a result of loss of forest cover.
“One of the most formidable environmental challenges the Philippines faces today is its diminishing forest cover,” the World Bank report claims. “Of the country’s total forestland area of 15.88 million hectares, only 5.4 million hectares are covered with forests and fewer than a million hectares of these are left with old growth forests.”
River pollution also contributes to the country’s current water woes.
A report released by the Asian Development Bank said that 16 rivers are now considered “biologically dead” during dry months. Some 48 per cent of water pollution come from domestic waste, 37 per cent from agricultural waste, and 15 per cent from industrial waste.
Many major coastal cities in the country are encountering saltwater intrusion problems in their groundwater resources due to over extraction of fresh water. Take the case of Cebu which “can always become the country’s salt capital,” to quote the words of veteran journalist Juan Mercado.
Cebu reportedly pumps 275,000 cubic meters daily. Its coastal aquifer can recharge less than half. Demand from population and industry will more than double by 2030. This “over-mining” permits salt water to seep in. The damage is irreversible. It takes 500 years or so to flush tainted underground reservoirs.
“The saline water edge has already penetrated three kilometers inland,” noted the March 1995 Cebu Water Resources Potential study.”
It is moving at a rate of 100 to 150 meters per year.”
Are there some solutions to these current water woes? Lawmakers are trying to figure out how to solve these problems. In fact, several water laws have recently been filed. Revilla filed Senate Bill No. 23, which sets sight on zero water backlog in all barangays nationwide and calls for the amendment of the Presidential Decree No. 198 or Provincial Water Utilities Act.
Herrera-Dy, together with Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara of Aurora, co-authored House Bill 4137 or Water Regulatory Act of 2011 seeking to protect consumers against abusive water firms by limiting their profit to 12 percent of their government-audited investments.
For his part, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. filed House Bill 4282 which centers on the creation of a water “superbody” to be known as the Water Regulatory Commission. The bill also seeks to accelerate the improvement and efficient development of water sources and distribution of water supply.
“Water isn’t just a commodity. It is a source of life,” says Sandra Postel, director of the Massachusetts-based Global Water Policy Project. Ideally, a person should have at least 50 liters of water each day to meet basic needs – for drinking, food preparation, cooking and cleaning up, washing and personal hygiene, laundry, house cleaning.
Postel believes water problems will trail climate change as a threat to the human future. “Although the two are related, water has no substitutes,” she explains. ”We can transition away from coal and oil to solar, wind and other renewable energy sources. But there is no transitioning away from water to something else.”
Water covers over 70 percent of the earth’s surface and is a major force in controlling the climate by storing vast quantities of heat.
About 97.5 percent of all water is found in the ocean and only the remaining 2.5 percent is considered fresh water. Unfortunately, 99.7 percent of that fresh water is unavailable, trapped in glaciers, ice sheets, and mountainous areas.
Water is drawn in two fundamental ways: from wells, tapping underground sources of water called aquifers; or from surface flows – that is, from lakes, rivers, and man-made reservoirs. Water is drawn in two fundamental ways: from wells, tapping underground sources of water called aquifers; or from surface flows – that is, from lakes, rivers, and man-made reservoirs.
“Water, water everywhere,” wrote Samuel Taylor Coleridge in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, “but not a drop to drink.”
