Comprehensive water management program pushed

MANILA, Philippines - An Israeli scientist urged the public and private sectors in the country to embark on a comprehensive water management program as recent studies show that population explosion and climate change are straining the world’s water supply.

“There would be an intense competition for water resources as population grows,” Avner Adin, professor at the Department of Soil and Water Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said at a water forum in Makati City.

Twenty-four United Nations agencies earlier reported that the surging population growth, climate change, reckless irrigation and chronic waste are threatening the world’s water supplies.

Adin, who chairs the Israel Drinking Water Standard Committee, said water conservation is the leading and cheapest measure to address water scarcity.

Adin said the government, together with the private sector and the academe, must work together to build more wastewater treatment facilities and train people who would man these facilities.

“These facilities don’t need to be expensive,” he said.

Adin said Israel, a water-scarce country, has embarked on a national campaign to develop all its water resources, providing comprehensive water conservation and efficient use of water by all users.

Adin said Israel has already implemented technologies that enable the production of 25 percent of the country’s water requirements.

He said the private sector in his country has funded large desalination plants. Desalination refers to any of several processes that remove excess salt and other minerals from water.

Water is desalinated to be converted into fresh water suitable for human consumption or irrigation.

He said Israeli scientists are also using the Soil-Aquifer Treatment (SAT) to treat wastewater.

The UN reported that global population could reach nine billion by 2050.

“Lack of access to water helps drive poverty and deprivation and breeds the potential for unrest and conflict,” it warned.

The Philippine population now stands at around 90 million, with an annual growth rate of 2.04 percent, one of the highest in Asia and above the government’s target of 1.9 percent.