As of February 15, 2020, the current population of the Philippines is 109,033,250 and is estimated to be

109,581,078 at midyear according to UN data. It is equivalent to 1.41% of the total world population and
ranks number 13 in the list of countries (and dependencies) by population.

Baguio City has a population of 272,714. It continues to grow exponentially and spikes up during peak
seasons (from December to February) when tourists come in to enjoy the cold weather.

The effects of this exponential growth lead to depletion/shortage of resources especially water. Trees
are getting cut off to free up space for new buildings – houses, apartments, dormitories, condominiums,
malls, etc. Some landslides and flooding are due to these developments in the city. The traffic around
most roads increase over time as more and more people buy cars for their own which have also polluted
the air due to smoke emissions. All these effects cause inconvenience and harm for all of Baguio and
Benguet.

We cannot stop population growth, but what we can do as engineers is to raise awareness to business
owners and other establishments and even co-engineers regarding this matter that they may re-
consider the impacts of their development proposals here in Baguio city and come up with better
solutions in accommodating vast population growth.

Discipline and accountability as stewards of this Earth should also be culminated to each citizen/tourist.

References:

https://sciencing.com/environmental-problems-due-population-growth-8337820.html

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/philippines-population/