EDITORIAL - Living in the dark

Men have gone to the moon and people can enjoy face time with loved ones almost anywhere in the world, any time, thanks to electronic gadgets. Yet in the Philippines, an estimated two million families, or about 13 million people, are still living without electricity, according to the head of the party-list coalition in the House of Representatives.

Rep. Mikee Romero of 1-Pacman said 19,000 barangays still have not been covered by the government’s rural electrification program. That’s over a tenth of the population still relying on kerosene, wood or paper for lighting purposes.

Apart from lighting, what can people not have or do in the absence of electricity? Obviously, nighttime activities are limited with inadequate lighting, and productivity is retarded. In a wired world, access is acutely limited for people without electricity. People in remote areas cannot enjoy television and the full benefits of the Information Age. Battery chargers for cell phones and computers need electricity. In some remote villages, people must travel to the town center just to charge their cell phones.

The electrification program is supposed to be supervised by the National Electrification Administration. Romero wants to expand the authority of the NEA to discipline rural electric cooperatives that are inefficient or fail to live up to their commitments in rural electrification.

Apart from electrification, the government must also ramp up efforts to provide safe water and sanitation facilities in rural areas. If communities are too remote for electrification, they usually also lack modern water networks and sanitation facilities including toilets. Residents in such areas rely on deep wells, but the safety of groundwater is unreliable. Periodic outbreaks of diseases including cholera have been reported in recent years, with the illnesses attributed to contaminated drinking water.

Safe water and electricity are among the basic human needs in the modern world. Any anti-poverty program must give priority to meeting these needs.