The urban poor of Sitio Bakal: Waterless in the city

The National Anti-Poverty Commission has identified 455 municipalities outside Metro Manila  as priority areas for the government's water supply projects. More than half of the residents in these towns do not have access to safe water.   In the National Capital Region, 84 percent of the residents have access to safe water, seems much better off. In Quezon City -- the largest local government in the national capital region -- access to safe water is even much higher at 98% of the population.   What is daily life like for the remaining 2 percent in Quezon City? Twenty pails.   Everyday, 32-year-old Angelita Diaz has to fetch 20 pails of water so that her family will have enough to drink and use for bathing and household chores.   The community artesian well where Diaz draws water is on a rocky slope several meters away from her house. She spends a good part of her day lining up at the well and pumping water into the containers that she brought with her; then, with a bamboo pole across her shoulders, she brings the water home, two pails at a time.   “Maaga kang pumila para maaga kang makatapos,” (“You have to line up early so you can finish early,”) Diaz shares in an interview with GMA News Research. She makes it a point to be there as early as 6:00 a.m. to be among the first in line. “Malas mo na lang kung marami ang nasundan mo, aabutin ka ng siyam-siyam,” (“Too bad if there are already a lot of people in line when you get there; it will be a long wait,”) she adds with a laugh.   Diaz is a resident of Sitio Bakal, one of the few remaining areas in Quezon City where access to water is difficult. The local government estimates that about 98% of the city have household water connections; but in Sitio Bakal, the only sources of water are three artesian wells (only one of which is for public use; the other two are privately owned) shared by about 150 poor families.   As an alternative water source, some Sitio Bakal residents dug wells, like the one in Diaz’s yard.   “Pag tag-ulan, may tubig kami dyan sa balon,” (We have water in the well during the rainy season,” Diaz shares. She points to a square well made of concrete hollow blocks in front of her house. “Pero kung walang tubig sa balon, nakiki-igib sa poso dun sa taas, tsaka dun sa poso sa pinakadulo doon,” (“But when the well is dry, we fetch water from the artesian well up there and from the other one one over there,”) Diaz says, this time pointing from end to end at spots beyond what can be seen from her yard.   When the lone public artesian well breaks down, like it has twice in the past five years, Sitio Bakal’s residents have no recourse but to rely on the kindness of neighbors.   “Pag nasira yun poso, yun po, nagtulong-tulong kami. Maghahanap po kami kung san makikiigib,” (“When the artesian well breaks down, we help each other. We look for other places where we can get water,”), Diaz says. “Katulad ngayon, sira po yan, doon kami nakikiigib kay Tiyo Pedro. Open naman si Tiyo Pedro kasi alam naman nya yung problema. Hindi po sya nagpabayad e, basta ang sabi nya sa amin iingatan lang. Matatanda lang ang magpoposo.” (“Now, the artesian well is not working, so we get water from Uncle Pedro. He’s open to it because he’s aware of our problem. He does not ask for payment; he just tells us to take care that the water is not wasted; only grownups can draw the water from his well,”), she adds.   For all her effort in drawing water, Diaz ensures that she makes the most out of the resource. For instance, when doing the laundry, she saves the soap suds and for later use when flushing the toilet and bathing the pigs that she raises in her yard. Water collected after washing the dishes is used to water the plants.   Diaz, however, is not sparing when it comes to drinking water. Out of the 20 containers that she fills everyday, two are especially set aside for drinking water.   “Hindi po pwedeng tipirin ang pang-inom kasi kailangan ng bata yun,” (“We can’t prevent them from drinking as much as they want because my children need water,” says Diaz,  who has three children aged 11, 6, and 3 years old. “Pag sinabing inom, inom! Sinasabi ko pa nga ‘ubusin nyo yan ha, mahirap mag-igib!’,” (“If they want to drink, then drink! I even tell them, ‘drink it all up because it’s difficult to fetch water!’,”), Diaz laughs.   Waterless yet flood-prone   While getting water for household use is a backbreaking chore for Sitio Bakal’s residents, it only takes a few hours of heavy downpour to flood their homes.   The sitio is a part of Barangay Bagong Silangan, a village in Quezon City that is highly vulnerable to flooding as it is near the Marikina River. The river serves as the border between the barangay and the neighboring municipality of San Mateo, Rizal province.   Barangay Bagong Silangan was hard hit by Tropical Storm Ondoy in 2009. At least 35 of the 105 deaths recorded in Quezon City in the aftermath of the storm came from this village. Storm Ondoy was one of the worst to hit the country in years; it claimed a total of 464 lives in Metro Manila and other places in Luzon after dumping close to a month’s worth of rain in just a few hours.   In Sitio Bakal, TS Ondoy’s extraordinarily heavy rainfall brought floodwaters that stranded residents on rooftops.   It would usually take overnight for a constant heavy downpour to cause floodwaters to rise up to knee-deep level in the sitio.   That the rains – even just light drizzles – complicate things for Sitio Bakal’s residents is an understatement. For one, it makes the already difficult chore of fetching water even more arduous.   “Mas mahirap kasi maputik. Magdadala ka ng balde pa-atras abante ka, lalo pa’t mabigat. Kasi sa amin po pag tag-ulan maputik talaga, di ka makakalakad ng may tsinelas. Kailangan walang tsinelas para di ka madudulas, o di kaya may bota ka mas maganda,” (“It’s more difficult because it’s muddy. You have to move forward and backward while carrying a heavy pail. It gets really muddy here during the rainy season; you won’t be able to walk with your slippers on. You have to take off your slippers to avoid losing your footing; or wear boots, that would be much better,”) says Diaz, also a survivor of TS Ondoy’s onslaught.    But losing slippers in the mud while fetching water would be the least of Diaz’s concerns. As a city health official sees it, dangers lie in the very source of water itself.   “Wala po tayong kasigurahan sa quality ng water na nanggagaling dun sa poso o dun sa balon, lalong lalo na dun sa balon kasi open yun sa elements, animals,” (“There is no assurance in the quality of water coming from the artesian well or from the well, especially from the well because it is open to the elements, animals,” explains Dr. Rowell Romulo, chief of the Sanitation Division of the Quezon City Health Department.   Romulo enumerates several illnesses that Diaz and other Sitio Bakal residents might catch from drinking water drawn from the artesian wells and backyard wells. Among the gastro-intestinal problems he mentioned were diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps and nausea. Sometimes, the diarrhea can become incessant and cause dehydration, which may prove fatal if not treated promptly.   “Definitely, flooding has an effect on the water source because with flooding comes other contaminants,” Romulo says.   It doesn’t help either that the sitio is close to a dumpsite in neighboring Barangay Payatas. “Contaminants may seep into the ground and become part of the water which they draw for drinking. It becomes more risky on the part of the consumer,” Romulo adds.   Romulo cautions that the water in the artesian wells should be tested, and that residents should refrain from drawing water from the wells dug in their yards. “Perhaps the water drawn from the wells may be used for domestic use – for cleaning or washing clothes, but definitely not for drinking,” he says.   At the very least, “they should boil the water to get rid of the pathogens,” Romulo advises.   Bahala na si God (God will take care of it.)   But Diaz does not boil the water she gets from available sources in Sitio Bakal.   When her family moved to the Sitio from the village proper six years ago, drinking the water drawn from the wells took some getting used to. Back in the village proper, water was easier to come by, and they used to buy mineral water from a refilling station.   “Nung una, nung bago kami, di pa sanay... inunti-unti ko, inaalternate yung mineral water at yung galing sa poso, hanggang sa nakasanayan ng mga bata,” (“At first, when we were still new here, we weren’t used to the water... Little by little, I alternately gave my children mineral water and water from the artesian well, until they eventually got used to it,”), Diaz says, recounting that her children suffered from dehydration, vomiting and diarrhea when they were just being introduced to the water from Sitio Bakal.     “Di ko po alam kung natetest yung tubig, kaya minsan po nangangamba rin po ako siguro baka nagkakaganito yung anak ko kasi ganito... pero lakas ng loob na lang po! Inaano ko na lang, bahala na si God!” (“I don’t know if the water gets tested, sometimes I fear that it might be the reason why my children get sick... but I just steel myself and think, let’s just leave it up to God!”, Diaz exclaims.   Diaz says that lately, her family no longer gets sick from drinking the water. Sitio Bakal’s residents also seem to be doing just fine, because the village has no recent reports of any outbreak of water-related diseases in the area.   “There is a possibility that they may have developed an adaptation to the water, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t being affected systemically,” warns Quezon City sanitation chief Dr. Rowell Romulo. “What’s difficult is that the effect could come later... just because they say they don’t feel ill now doesn’t mean we will be complacent about that,” he says.   In the short term, Romulo said the city government will be coordinating with the officials of Barangay Bagong Silangan regarding the water supply of Sitio Bakal. They could provide the sitio’s residents with hyposol, a chlorine solution that can be used to disinfect the water, at least the water they use for drinking. The city government will also coordinate with Maynilad Water Services Inc., the private water concessionaire which provides services to that part of Quezon City, to see if the artesian wells in Sitio Bakal can be added to the list of wells regularly monitored and tested for water quality.   The local government of Barangay Bagong Silangan is also working out a solution. According to Barangay Captain Crisell Beltran, the main obstacle to Sitio Bakal’s residents from getting safe water connections is a parcel of land.   “Hinahanap namin ngayon yung may-ari ng lupa kasi kukuha ng right of way e, para pag nag-hukay sila ilalagay yung tubo papunta sa Sitio Bakal,” (We are looking for the owner of the land fronting the sitio; we need right-of-way for digging and laying the pipes leading to Sitio Bakal,” Beltran explains.   Beltran is hopeful that safe water will come to Sitio Bakal as soon as the barangay traces the land’s owner. ”Kung sakaling ang Sitio Bakal ay magkakatubig, mabibigyan sila ng livelihood gaya ng paggawa ng sabon,” (“If Sitio Bakal gets access to water, they can have livelihood projects like soap-making,”), she says. “We’re working it out. They might get water connections in two- to three- weeks’ time,” she adds.   The planned water connection will bring piped-in water from the village proper only up to a certain point in the sitio. From there, the water will be delivered to the households through garden hoses that can be transferred from house-to-house.   While it is still not the ideal pipe-to-household faucet convenience like what most of Quezon City already has, the plan still sounds good for Angelita Diaz and her fellow Sitio Bakal residents.   “Masakit po ang balikat ko sa araw-araw na kapipingga ng tubig,” (“My shoulders ache from carrying the water pails everyday,”) Diaz winces. — MRT/ELR, GMA News