Longing for water

Former Philippine president Fidel Ramos, speaking at the Shangri-La Mactan Island Resort for the 8th Asia Pacific Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production, reintroduced a long-shelved plan to pipe in water from Bohol for water-starved Cebu.

The plan was hatched during the presidency of Ramos (1992-1998) by then Cebu governor Lito Osmeña, who also doubled as a valued economic adviser to the former general. But as Ramos would now say, the plan fell through because of "cultural reasons."

According to the cigar-chomping ex-leader, "the Boholanos did not like the idea of Bohol looking like a colony of Cebu." While non-Filipinos would probably find non sequitor this kind of reasoning, Filipinos themselves would readily see why.

While the Philippines can, on occasion, rise with remarkable oneness and unity, as when the entire nation literally stops to watch a Manny Pacquiao fight on tv, it is also notoriously and passionately fragmented along regional or, as Ramos said, cultural lines.

On the subject of water alone, it is still within vivid recall how a plan to similarly pipe in water from the town of Compostela to Cebu City caused such acrimonious disagreement between the two localities that the matter eventually ended in court.

"Cultural reasons" have caused other conflicts across the length and breadth of this nation, for reasons that range from the childish, as in a mayor banning political enemies from using a road, to the serious and urgent, as in dumping in one place the garbage from another.

But it is good that Ramos coined the term "cultural reasons." It sugarcoats the possible true causes for the collapse of the plan to pipe in water from Bohol to Cebu. For many actually see the plan as likely to cause more problems than it can solve.

To be sure, the planners put in a great deal of time, money and effort to come up with a feasibility study whose findings positively endorsed the project. But the best of studies offer no absolute guarantees a plan will work once put into action.

Cebuanos, for instance, have known what it feels like to be crippled when the lights suddenly go out, as when the submarine cables feeding power from Leyte's vast geothermal fields to Cebu were cut by accident.

Now, to go without power may be very uncomfortable and inconvenient. And it can cause tremendous economic losses and dislocation. But it is not immediately life threatening as when the taps suddenly dry, for whatever reason.

Now, there could be a number of reasons why any "imported" water can suddenly disappear, not the least of which may be the "cultural reasons" that Ramos spoke of. It could be that, with climate changes and global warming, the source in Bohol may no longer be abundantly available.

Admittedly, I lack the expertise to propose any viable alternative. I just do not feel comfortable with the thought that, before I could put any water to my lips, it has to first travel many many kilometers under harsh and uncertain conditions, both natural and man-made.

To me it is always better to have my water spring from the ground beneath my feet, in the land that I am familiar with, in the place I call home. Water is such a vital commodity, I would not want to have its availability dictated upon, especially by "cultural reasons."

The availability of water, not just for Cebu, but for the rest of the country should be ensured. Government must work double time because there really isn't much time before we reach the tipping point, and water simply cannot be gathered anymore even if all of us work on it.