'Water refilling stations found to be more wasteful'

CEBU, Philippines - Advocates for sustainable water seek for the regulation of water refilling stations as the kind of business has more wastage than all households combined together in terms of consumption of water for drinking.

The Cebu Uniting for Sustainable Water (CUSW) said that there is a need to regulate water refilling stations especially in this time of the El Niño phenomenon where water conservation is in great demand.

CUSW executive director Socorro Atega said that there is also a need to monitor extraction of water in private wells for proper water management.

Since Cebu was not spared from the onslaught of El Niño and as its effect is already felt especially in mountain barangays with existing problem in water supply, CUSW said that it is the right time for a local ordinance that will regulate the use and extraction of water in the city and the province.

 Cebu is mostly dependent on ground water resources for all kinds of consumption. Other water resource of minimal quantity is impounded rainwater in dams and watersheds.

“But we keep on getting without recharging, so where is sustainability there?” Atega said.

“When it comes to policies dealing with water, fragmented ang agencies handling different concerns. So minsan, nahihirapan tayo sa pagmonitor sa consumption to ensure that water is managed properly or even to ensure that water delivered to houses or made available to public in other ways is safe for drinking,” Atega said.

Even Cebu City, CUSW said, does not have its own environment and natural resources office that should be handling cases like that of conservation of the natural resources.

The office of Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival, chairman of the committee on environment, assured that creation of ENRO is in the process.

The CUSW however said that the way to recharge underground water is through reforestation of the natural drainage basin of Cebu which is the 29,063-hectare Central Cebu Protected Landscape.

“Fifty percent of the CCPL is supposed to be for restoration ideally, it is supposed to be forest covered. But there is no honest-to-goodness restoration kay walay budget ang DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources),” Atega said.

She said that the problem maybe is that the role of local government units in ensuring the sustainability of water supply in their community is not clearly defined. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/MEEV   (FREEMAN NEWS)