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When wells run dry: A tragedy looming large


Felmy wastes no time right after getting up in the morning. She grabs four empty plastic containers and walks off to fetch water from a water pump nearby. It has become such a habit that she no longer minds the long queue at the water pump station, nor the two pesos she has to pay for each gallon of water. “Tiyaga talaga. Walang magamit sa pagluluto," says Felmy, a housewife. For her and other residents of Sitio Anahaw in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, there's no other option. Their place is way too high for water to reach. So they decided to build a deep well with a water pump. But the well in Sitio Anahaw, and in similar other places, may run dry by 2025, according the National Water Resources Board (NWRB). Or even as early as 2010, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). “There is an impending water crisis," says NWRB Director Ramon Alikpala. Told about this warning, Felmy only shakes her head: “Bahala na." Sitio Anahaw residents are already starting to feel the effects of the impending shortage. Big effect on Metro Manila According to the NWRB, Metro Manila residents, now numbering at least 10 million, would feel the crisis more acutely, particularly those living in southern cities like Muntinlupa. In fact, some metro areas, Alikpala points out, are already coping with a water shortage. Metro Manila needs 1,068 million cubic meters of water a year, yet groundwater resource could only produce up to 191 million cubic meters. In 2025, Metro Manila will need up to 4,000 million cubic meters of water annually. Eight other major cities face the same prospect — Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Bacolod, Angeles, Zamboanga, Baguio, and Cagayan de Oro. Alikpala says most of the country's water is supplied by rainfall, which average 2.36 meters annually. The problem, however, is that rain distribution is not even throughout the country. Agriculture is responsible for 86 percent of all water use, followed by industry with eight percent and only six percent for domestic use. Filipinos consume 310 to 507 million cubic meters of water daily, but not all have access to water. Based on the 1990 baseline data for the Philippines, 27 percent of Filipinos still have no access to drinking water. The decline in coverage was more pronounced in the rural than in the urban areas. Crisis of the poor “Above all, this is the crisis of the poor," the UN Development Program warns through its Human Development Report 2006 (HDR). Prices of water will skyrocket, and the poor who cannot afford will die either of thirst or of diseases from contaminated water. The crisis might also results in conflicts. “Social scientists project that future wars — wars among nations, but also wars within nations and among social groupings in the nations — will be fought over water," says President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in a speech she delivered during the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) meeting in December. According to the HDR, over the past 50 years there have been 37 cases of reported violence among countries because of water. All but seven of those cases took place in the Middle East. But Arroyo herself says that such conflicts can be averted by strong policies and agreements that will protect the common interest of mankind. “We must not leave things to fatal luck when we can develop the tools to prevent harm." Global trend The impending crisis is not an isolated case. The United Nations Population Fund had earlier warned that two-thirds of the world's population of 6.5 billion people would suffer from a shortage of freshwater for drinking. Freshwater comes from rivers, lakes, and the ground. But unlike water in the seas and oceans, its supply is limited. It accounts for less than three percent of the world's water. And worse, more than 75 percent of it is frozen - mostly at the North and South Poles. Population rise straining supply The NWRB blames the impending local crisis on the rapid population increase and the DENR blames it on the uncontrolled exploitation of resources. The country's overall water supply may have risen, but the population rose faster so that the supply per person actually decreased. “From 1995 to 2005, the government has successfully provided water for an additional 23.04 million. However, the population increased by 24.5 million over the same period," says Alikpala in his presentation during a meeting with UNDP. The country’s annual growth rate from 1990-2000 is 2.34 percent or 1.8 million per year. In 1990, population was registered at 60.7 million, but in 2000, it soared to 76.5 million. In 2005, there were 85.2 million, now it is projected at 86 million. Water can only be harvested DENR Secretary Angelo Reyes issued his own warning late in January during a conference of the Integrated Water Resources Management Group, which is composed of government agencies involved in water resources conservation management. “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," Reyes said. Water, unlike electricity, cannot be produced, Reyes explained. It can only be harvested. So if sources of the commodity are not taken care of, the supply runs out. “There has been too much focus on developing new sources of supply rather than on better management of existing ones," Reyes said. Sources in critical condition A few years ago, the DENR reported that 90 percent of the 99 watershed areas in the country were “hydrologically critical." The once productive forested watersheds, major sources of freshwater, has been seriously and massively despoiled by loggers — both legal and illegal. The rampant cutting of trees has also resulted in soil erosion that destroys watershed areas. The major basins in Bicol, Magat, Pampanga and Agno have reportedly been placed in critical condition because of acute soil erosion and sedimentation. The provinces of Cebu and Batangas have lost about 80 percent of their topsoil to erosion. Mining, overgrazing, agricultural expansion, and industrialization have as well denuded forestlands, effectively reducing the volume of groundwater. DENR records show that forestlands now only cover about 5 million hectares, way down from the 15 million hectares decades ago. Cebu province, which has zero forest cover, is 99 percent dependent on groundwater. Thus, a number of its towns and cities have no access to potable water. Polluted rivers Reyes says rivers, another source of water, have been destroyed as well. Only 36 percent of the river systems are safe for public consumption, and up to 50 of the country's 421 rivers can be considered “biologically dead." River pollution is largely attributed to domestic and industrial wastes, coupled with changing weather patterns such as the El Niño phenomenon, a sustained warming of sea surface temperatures across a broad region of the eastern and central tropical Pacific Ocean. El Niño events are also called warm events in which rainfall tends to be less than normal. Contaminated groundwater “Our groundwater is polluted, and it will take thousands of years before you can break that. We are going to be confronted with the problem of not just the quantity but also the quality of water," Reyes says. The liquid from garbage in open dumps, pesticides from farms, toxic fluids from industrial plants — all these seep into the ground and mix with the groundwater. Overextraction of groundwater has lowered the water table, allowing salt water to seep from coastal areas, thus making the water too salty for drinking. In Metro Manila, for example, water tables are being drawn at the rate of 6 to 12 meters a year. Not too late Alikpala says the government still has a lot of time to avert the crisis by instituting better water management practices and effective distribution for the short and long term. At the moment, the government is looking into water recycling and water desalination, as Singapore has been doing. But each Filipino need not wait for government action, Alikpala says. Water conservation should start at home now. Rain harvesting, for example, is an option. Rainwater can substitute water from faucets for laundry and carwash use. To quote the HDR: “Providing a glass of clean water and a toilet may be challenging, but it is not rocket science." - GMANews.TV

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