Deep dilemma on the water shortage

Water is fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a healthy life in human dignity. It is a pre-requisite to the realization of all other human rights. The United Nations Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, Environmental News Service, 27 Nov 02.

Many welcomed the heavy rains brought by typhoons Chedeng and Dodong starting early this week after a long period of extraordinary humidity that brought water in dams at critical levels. The rains helped raise the water levels, though still deficient, in Angat Dam in Bulacan, Binga and Ambuklao dams in Benguet. Magat Dam in Isabela, and Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija. However, the amount of rainfall predicted for the month still falls below the normal average. Thus, despite the floods that inundated coastal and low areas, the situation remains bleak for the farmers in the North-Central regions. They have not been able to plant rice and crops due to a prolonged dry spell and thus shortage in these staple foods may be expected in the coming months.

Drought happens when there is less rainfall than expected over an extended period of time, usually several months or longer. This is common to desert lands like Arizona and Southern Africa. But in a country like the Philippines and its 7,100 islands surrounded geographically by water, experiencing drought and water shortage is certainly a crisis. The National Water Resources Board has had to repeatedly impose a cutback in the supply of water during the past 3 years, affecting residents in the metropolis. We used to have only brownouts. Now we are also forced to go waterless!

Few people realize the impact of a drought and water crisis. We can see a landslide and feel an earthquake, but we can’t see drought. When we don’t get as much water as we expect or need over a significant period of time, we feel uncomfortable and life becomes abnormal. It happens so slowly that we only see it effects when it is too late. Unlike the natural disasters, droughts do not just begin or end. They can persist over a long period of time, its damage creeping slowly until it can no longer be reversed. Drought may affect the production of fruits and vegetables, which will lead to food shortages and increase the prices of these same goods to the detriment of our already poor citizens.

Our government has caused the building of additional dams to mitigate the effects of water shortage. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita has announced in a press briefing that water rationing in Metro Manila will commence on August 15 with most areas to experience service interruption for four hours each day. In the long run, the government may need to control the population to make sure that there will be sufficient water supply. Unless population growth can be slowed quickly, there may not be a humane solution to the emerging water shortage here and in other countries as well.

It is shuddering to think that one day if this situation persists, we can no longer wash dishes, much less our hair or our clothes because our water supply has already been depleted. Not long ago, we used to think that buying bottled water is a luxury, but now this is the norm, rather than the exception. As it is now, water is expensive but if shortage will not be reversed, it may soon become a luxurious necessity.

Individuals, families and business should seriously find ways to reduce the amount of water that they use. If we are not careful, our children and their children may not have water in the same way we enjoy it now. Water is a life and death commodity that must be conserved and protected.