Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume IV, Number 12 April 25 - May 1, 2004 Quezon City, Philippines |
Commentary What
To Do about the Water Crisis The
water crisis takes root from an ailing socio-political and economic system that
regards the Philippines as a rich source of raw materials, and a ready source of
foreign exchange revenues. At the same time, we remain a fertile dumping ground
of excess international capital that TNCs use to further extract super profits.
Unless solutions are grounded on resolving the roots of this water problem, we
may just find ourselves sinking deeper in the crisis that our government seems
to be so helplessly trying to avert. By
Clemente Bautista Jr., It
is ironic that despite the Philippines being one of the most richly
water-endowed archipelagoes in the world, the government has been repeatedly
warning about a water shortage because of the receding level of Angat Dam. The
following questions must be asked: Are we in the middle of a water crisis? What
should we do in relation to this crisis? In
1996, it was assessed that the Philippines is blessed with 226,430 million cubic
meters (MCM) of freshwater, affording Filipinos a total supply of 975 MCM of
water per day or approximately 14 cu. m. per capita per day. Eight years year later, however, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) claims that every Filipino is now limited to access 1,907 cu. m. of freshwater per year or a little more than 5 cu. m. of water per day. This is allegedly because of an increasingly unchecked problem of water pollution and depleted water in the aquifers. The DENR points to a World Bank study, stating that of our total water resources, only 36 percent is now considered safe. While
such a huge gap in only 8 years apparently suggests a crisis, it also on the
other hand points out that something is wrong with the way the government has
been taking care of our environment, particularly our water resources. If
the above-quoted statistics are correct, it means that for the past right years,
our water resources have been steadily decreasing.
Demand for water has been increasing at a faster rate. In terms of
groundwater availability, it was found to be decreasing by 1.4 percent per year
or a total of 2,500 MCM, while demand has increased by an annual average rate of
5.3 percent. But
this is only giving us half the picture. Indeed, if the DENR statistics is at
all equitable, 5 cu. m. of water means that every Filipino is still more than
amply provided of their daily domestic requirements for potable water. One cubic
meter is equivalent to about 5 drums of water or about 1,000 liters. This is far
from the reality, however. According
to the Philippine Water for the People Network, as much as 60 percent of the
population are one way or another lacking adequate means to access clean and
affordable water. The
DENR, on the other hand, assesses that 30 percent of all households nationwide
do not even have a faucet in their homes, relying for their water needs on
rivers, lakes, natural springs and open dug wells where the water is often of
doubtful safeness or potability. What
do we think is the reason for this sorry situation? The
government’s negligible performance in environmental protection immediately
comes to mind. A rapidly decreasing carrying capacity of our freshwater
ecosystem is a given not because of our population’s increasing need but more
so because the government continues to compromise the long-term viability of our
resources by policies that auction off most of our natural resources. This even
as the government just relies on external environmental funds, which are being
cut back, for protecting and regenerating our environment. For
example, while the Arroyo administration prioritizes a program to revitalize the
mining industry, it on the other hand suspended its reforestation program after
the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Asian Development
Bank (ADB) discontinued supporting such projects. As
a result, the DENR under the Arroyo administration was only able to reforest a
little over 70,000 hectares of open and denuded areas, a 36 percent decrease
from a similar project obtained during a much briefer Estrada administration.
Worse, the government has failed to arrest rampant logging. Deforestation
continues at a mind-boggling rate of 100,000 hectares per year, further
degrading the country’s severely eroded forest cover, estimated to have
already gone down to a more unsustainable 16 percent of Philippine land area. Dwindling
forest cover means less groundwater in our watershed. High levels of erosion
result in heavy siltation of rivers and reservoirs. Remaining unchecked, these
have led to a depletion of our fresh water sources. According to the DENR, most
of our 154 priority watershed areas, comprising 12.43 million hectares, are
considered degraded. Compounding
the problem about the state of our water resources is the government’s avowal
to continue its water privatization policy, notwithstanding the current problems
that Metro Manila water consumers continue to bear. Seven years since the
privatization of the water distribution facility in the national capital center,
consumers still wallow with no or inadequate water, contaminated water, and
rising water hikes. While the government has failed to bring the concessionaires
to comply with their commitments, it chooses to bail out Maynilad Water Services
Incorporated, and supports the privatization of local water districts in several
towns and districts nationwide. Another
convincing argument against water privatization is the fact that it has failed
to check staggering amount of water that continues to go to waste because of the
inefficiency of private water companies. Thus, Maynilad and Manila Water
continue to drain 2,500 million liters of water per day without this much water
going to the people. Moreover,
the water privatization policy has not only been determined to be the main cause
of the water scarcity afflicting majority of the populace; it likewise submits a
large amount of our precious water resources for the control and appropriation
of big business and transnational corporations. A
December 2002 data from the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) reveal that
dam projects for power generation, administered by the National Power
Corporation in partnership with transnational dam builders and foreign power
corporations, comprise 56.9 percent of the total 5.69 million liters per second
of water drawn from various sources throughout the Philippines. This lopsidedly
compares to only about 3 percent of the same total volume of water going for
domestic usage. As
large dams submerge hundreds to thousands of hectares of forest and agricultural
lands, while massively diverting natural water flows and destroying in the
process nature’s delicate ecological balance, in the longer term, large dams
bring more harm than good to the natural environment. The WCD found out that
large dams even ultimately kill the environment’s regenerative capacity, as
witness the drying of rivers in most dams covered by the WCD study.
Meanwhile,
as the Arroyo government, through the MWSS, is set to put in place alternative
water sources for Metro Manila, there is not an altogether unfounded fear that
this will result in higher water rates and further privatization of our water
resources. While price increases are expected to follow from such expensive and
sometimes technologically-inappropriate projects, the greater reason to oppose
such projects is because of the displacement and disenfranchisement to be
suffered by more Filipinos. Not only will they be disenfranchised from drinking
water due to unaffordable cost of water, but the livelihood of millions of
fisherfolks in Laguna and parts of Rizal provinces will stand to lose their
livelihoods with the construction of large reservoirs and the planned tapping of
the polluted Laguna Lake.
President
Arroyo likes crediting her administration for putting in place the Integrated
Water Resources Management (IWRM) framework in addressing environmental concerns
on water. Accordingly, this entails a “coordinated development and management
of water, land and related resources within hydrological boundaries, to optimize
economic and social welfare, without compromising the sustainability of
ecosystems.” Nice
words to lull us into believing that indeed something is being done to address
the environment in relation to the water crisis that afflicts majority of
Filipinos. However, the water crisis takes root from an ailing socio-political and economic system that regards the Philippines as a rich source of raw materials, and a ready source of foreign exchange revenues. At the same time, we remain a fertile dumping ground of excess international capital that TNCs use to further extract super profits. Unless solutions are grounded on resolving the roots of this water problem, we may just find ourselves sinking deeper in the crisis that our government seems to be so helplessly trying to avert. Posted by Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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