EDITORIAL - Wasted resource

The nation joined the international community in observing World Water Day on March 22 amid warnings by some analysts that the next major wars will be fought over fresh water. Around the world, acute shortages of safe water have worsened poverty and increased deaths from hunger and malnutrition. This year’s theme for World Water Week, to be observed in August with an international gathering in Sweden, focuses on the link between water and food security.

The Philippines is blessed with many sources of fresh water, but those sources are being threatened by pollution, forest denudation and indiscriminate development. As the sources are threatened, the population continues to boom, increasing demand for safe water.

The archipelago could have enough water to meet the continually growing demand, but up to 70 percent of the country’s available water is wasted or lost, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. In Metro Manila, water distributed by the two concessionaires is lost or wasted through damaged pipes, the DENR reported shortly before World Water Day. In farming areas, damaged irrigation canals mean wasted water. Pollution is also increasingly reducing the nation’s water supply.

Water experts have warned that by 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people would be living in countries that totally lack their own sources of safe water, while water shortages could afflict two-thirds of the world’s population. This would threaten food production and livelihoods.

The prospects are dire, especially in arid lands and countries without their own sources of water. But in countries blessed by nature’s bounty such as the Philippines, there are many viable ways of nurturing water resources. Reforestation, curbing industrial pollution, and protecting water sources from human settlement and unplanned development are not impossible tasks. Preserving water sources must be a national effort. A reliable supply of clean water means better sanitation and health, higher farm production and greater food security.