Let’s save our rivers

Meryl Streep almost drowned while doing River Wild. The director of the movie reportedly wanted to shoot one more scene before calling it a day. A very tired Meryl balked at the idea but still followed the director’s request. Meryl fell off the raft while filming and almost drowned. Upstream, Meryl told the director, "In the future, when I say I can’t do something, I think you should believe me." River Wild is one of the most exciting films set on location in a river. Many of the scenes were done on the wild, scenic Rogue River in Southern Oregon.

The famous river jump in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford was also shot on the same location. Another famous water scene is the parting of the Red Sea in the classic movie Ten Commandments. Moses (played by Charlton Heston), who is being pursued by the Pharaoh’s army points his cane on the waters of the Red Sea, and the sea divides into half and poor Moses and his tribe cross to the other bank. Tikoy Aguiluz’s obra The Boatman starring Ronnie Lazaro was shot on location in Pagsanjan River in Laguna. The Boatman catapulted Tikoy to fame and launched Ronnie Lazaro’s movie career. The 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai starring Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa, Jack Hawkins and William Holden is set on location in a river. It’s about the construction of a Burmese Railway that would link all of Burma (now Myanmar). Mystic River, A River Runs Through It, Return to Snowy River, are some movies that utilize a river as part of the movie backdrop.

But did you know that three quarters of the earth’s total surface is covered with water? Estimates have it that the earth contains about 1.46 million cubic km. of water. The biggest chunk of these waters are our oceans and inland seas. The rest of the waters are the glaciers and ice caps, fresh water lakes and rivers. Added to the surface water is the underground water.

One of the biggest bodies of water in the world is the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes is a group of five large lakes in North America on or near the Canada-US border. They are the largest group of fresh water lakes on Earth. The Great Lakes are Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The lakes are bounded by Ontario (all of the lakes except Michigan), Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan (all but Lake Ontario), Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. Four of the five lakes straddle the US-Canada border; the fifth, Lake Michigan, is entirely within the US. The Saint Lawrence River, is a primary outlet of these interconnected lakes, and flows through Quebec and past the Gaspé Peninsula to the northern Atlantic Ocean.

Yet for all their size and power, the Great Lakes are fragile. In the past, this fragile nature wasn’t recognized, and the lakes were mistreated for economic gain, placing the ecosystem under tremendous stress from human activities.

The world is incurring a vast water deficit. And it is growing fast. The scarcity of water is discovered only when wells go dry. The tripling demand for water and the drilling of millions of wells have pushed water withdrawals beyond the recharge of many aquifers.

In Yemen, the water table is falling by roughly two meters a year as water use far exceeds the sustainable yield of aquifers. Iran, is also facing an acute shortage of water. Villages in eastern Iran are being abandoned as wells go dry, generating a swelling flow of water refugees. Water shortages in Egypt, which is dependent on the Nile River, are well known. The same is true of countries that rely on the Nile for water supply — Ethiopia and Sudan. In Mexico, demand for water has outstripped supply. Mexico City’s water problems are legendary. Some countries including those in Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, plus India, Pakistan and even the US are facing water shortages.

Seventy percent of the world use water, including all the water diverted from rivers and pumped from underground, used for irrigation, 20 percent is used by industry, and 10 percent goes to residences. Thus if the world is facing a water shortage, it’s also facing a food shortage.

Another great body of water that is endangered is Parañaque River or Ilog Palanyag. The river played a crucial role in the country’s history — from the early Hispanic-Filipino times and the struggle for independence in World War II. The eight km. long river was not only the source of fresh water for households but for water borne transportation. The river with its abundance of vegetation and aquatic resources was also a major food source for people living along the river bank and a route to the richer fishing grounds of the Manila Bay.

The city of Parañaque is trying its very best to rehabilitate the historic river. Work to save the river through its Save the Parañaque River Project has been ongoing like dredging of the water bed, shoring of the river banks including planting of bamboo and mango trees to prevent soil erosion, mangrove propagation to bring back aquatic animals and fishes to the river. Squatters who lived around the area have also been relocated and given livelihood programs. The river has also been opened as alternative means of transportation.

"Rehabilitation of the river is a community effort. We can bring back to life the river. The river is God’s gift to us. It is part of our heritage and what we make do of the river will be part of our legacy for future generations to come," says Edward Blanco, the amiable executive assistant to Parañaque Mayor Jun Bernabe.