Water everywhere but not suitable water

Our problem with water is very conflicting. At times, we have too much water, as a result we get problems like mudslides and floods. Now, no less than the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has issued a warning that the Philippines is facing a severe fresh water supply that may erupt as early as 2010. That is only three years away.

The main reason why this problem is very puzzling is that we are a republic composed of islands. So we will always be surrounded by water. Unfortunately, it is salt water. The DENR report clearly states that our islands are at the low end among Southeast Asian countries when it comes to fresh water supply. The report adds that this problem is now already being felt in nine major cities in the country – Metro Manila, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Bacolod, Angeles City, Zamboanga, Baguio and Cagayan de Oro.

When we first traveled abroad, I was amazed that I had to pay for drinking water in Paris. Now we are buying bottled water to drink at home. As for ordinary water, we still all flush our toilets at home.

As far as transporting water, an American novelist sometime ago wrote that "human beings were invented by water as their device for transporting itself from one location to another."

The DENR Report clearly states that the country’s overall water supply has actually even increased from 1990 to 2002, but coverage declined from 81.4 percent to 80 percent last year because of the population increase in that same period. In Metro Manila and Cebu, there is another problem: over-extraction of groundwater has caused the lowering of the water table and one of its consequences is the increase in the water salinity. Seventy percent of all water used actually went to the irrigation of agricultural lands. The problem here is that the water used for irrigation becomes polluted because of the pesticides and this greatly reduces our supply not only of drinking water, but water for industrial use. The major source for fresh water was water from rivers and lakes. Now 50 of our 421 rivers can be classified as "biologically dead."

We hope that the administration heeds DENR’s warning of a potential water shortage in eight years. The time to act is now. We hope that the time does not come when our country will be described as "water, water everywhere, but not enough to drink." I’m not sure if boiling polluted water can ensure its safety to drink. What I know is that we are all advised to drink at least eight glasses of water a day. It is as important as air and is part of our food supply.