Water, an International Concern

Water is the gift of life, making the existence of the human race on this planet possible. In our
everyday lives we drink, take showers, cook food and wash dirty clothes with water. Water is as almost old
as the earth itself; though, is it as fresh and accessible as it was? No. The answer is no. In fact, many
countries, including our peaceful and brave country, are having a water scarcity. Water scarcity occurs
when there isn’t enough water to meet demand in a region. It already affects every continent and around
2.8 billion people around the world at least one month out of every year. More than 1.2 billion people lack
access to clean drinking water.

“Cebu City in state of emergency due to water crisis,” said CNN News Philippines last April 2016. It
wasn’t that far away from the present time, was it? Cebu City Mike Rama has declared a state of
emergency following the scarce water supply affecting 98 percent of all the barangays in the city, and
PAGASA experts told the mayor that the dry spell would run up to May and even in June 2016.

Here’s another article, “ECCP sounds alarm: Key Philippine cities at risk from severe water
shortage,” said Philippine Star last May 2016. Closer, isn’t it? Metro Manila and other key cities in the
Philippines are in danger of experiencing drought in water supply in a decade’s time unless immediate
measures in improving water security are put in place, the European Chamber of Commerce of the
Philippines (ECCP) said. According to ECCP, the Philippines is the second Southeast Asian country to
sound the alarm on scarcity of water supply after Thailand did last month.

You know what ironic? The Philippines is a country surrounded by vast waters; yet, it still faces
problems of water crisis. As the population number raised rapidly, both here in Philippines and the whole
world, the amount of clean water lowers. With rapid increase of urbanization, and industrialization, the
quality of Philippine waters is reduced especially in densely populated areas and regions of industrial and
agricultural activities. What are the main causes? It’s already a common knowledge; the dry spell of El Nino
and global warming, pollution, and deforestation.

Let talk about it one by one.

2015 was the hottest year ever recorded according to the World Meteorological Organization
(WMO). El Niño is a weather phenomenon characterized by an unusual increase in ocean surface
temperatures or warming in the center and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. Occurring every two to 7
years, it can bring either heavy rain or drought that may last for a year, and may heavily impact the
agricultural sector, and supply of water and power in the country. For the past several decades, it has been
observed that its occurrence has increased due to climate change as a result of global warming. The
reduced rainfall leading to drought causes shortage in water supply leading to the rationing of water in
some situations, shortage in hydropower supply, and food supply. Every summer, we wouldn’t miss a part
of the news about the low levels of water in the dams, right?

Next is pollution. Again, it’s been talked about for who knows how many times as a student; it
became a common knowledge. One example of water being wasted because of pollution is the Pasig
River. I haven’t seen it before, well, at least in the state where it was considered as beauty like I heard from
my older relatives. It suffers from a high level of water pollution and efforts are being made to rehabilitate it.
After World War II, massive population growth, infrastructure construction, and the dispersal of economic
activities to Manila's suburbs left the river neglected. The banks of the river attracted informal settlers and
the remaining factories dumped their wastes into the river, making it effectively a huge sewer system. By
the 1990s, the Pasig River was considered biologically dead. (Great job, you just killed a river. Is that
considers as murder?)

Laguna de Bay is also filled with pollution. The Laguna de Bay, one of the five largest freshwater
lakes in the whole of Southeast Asia and a major source of food and livelihood for thousands of people, is
slowly dying from industrial and household pollution. I live in Los Banos, with the lake a walk away from my
house. I am not kidding when I say it has brown water filled with toxic materials. Sometimes, you can smell
the not-so fresh air plus the smell of ducks. (Bawal kantahin ang tatlong bibe sa amin because it’s a lie.
Hindi lang kasi tatlo ang makikita mo.)

Denudation of Forest Cover: The supply of water from most freshwater bodies usually come from
watersheds --- patches of forest cover that absorb rainwater and channel it into streams, rivers, and
eventually dams where many human communities (especially Metro Manila) source their freshwater.
Despite the role of the forest in the replenishment and maintenance of both ground and surface water, the
Philippines is considered to be one of the most severely deforested countries in the tropics as it lost more
than 97% of its original forest cover in the last 50 years. (97? Isn’t that a large number? Quota na, sabi nga
nila sa Tagalog) Widespread logging was responsible for much of the historical forest loss in the
Philippines. Despite government bans on timber harvesting following severe flooding in the late 1980s and
early 1990s, illegal logging continues today.

I don’t know about you, but after this research, I became a little- scratch that, very insecure on how
I use my water. What can a simple citizen help stop the water crisis? Follow the conservation tips. It isn’t
that hard; it is as simple as closing a left opened faucet, literally. Spread information. If gossip about your
idol travels in a speed of light, why the information about our future cannot? Know your surroundings,
because you never know if its beauty will disappear in a blink of an eye. It’s a chain reaction like one spark
starts a fire… Wait, that’s quite the opposite of this topic. One drop of water can become a vast sea. Yes,
that’s more appropriate. It’s not too late to return the prosperity of water.

Let me end in this part with a quote: Children of a culture born in a water-rich environment, we
have never really learned how important water is to us. We understand it, but we do not respect it.

-William Ashworth