Tooobeeeggg!

Everyone’s talking about water. From newspaper columnists to television talk show hosts, from taxi and Grab drivers to the socialites and sosyaleras, from millennials to matronas, that’s the topic of conversation and discussion – sometimes heated – over lunch or coffee or happy hour at the beer house. There are horror stories and funny stories, as only Filipinos will find humor even in the most trying, the direst circumstances.

We’ve had water shortage problems before – El Niño is by no means a new phenomenon – but this time the situation was really bad, hitting many areas literally without warning. My friend called her barangay office to inquire why suddenly no water was coming out of their faucets; the lady at the barangay office had no idea about any water problem, saying, “May tubig naman kami dito, sa condo kami eh (We have water here, we’re in a condo).” Not just clueless but insensitive too, but my friend, being a church-going lady, didn’t scream or cuss but simply asked her to please find out why the taps were dry in their barangay.  

Last Tuesday, when plastic pails and tabos (dippers) were commanding high prices – if they were available for sale – there was an item in our Business section that trumpeted a P6.5-billion profit for Manila Water for the year 2018, up 6 percent from the previous year, indicating increased dividends – the first tranche of P939 million to be distributed on Thursday (March 28) and the second tranche in October. And another rate increase – “tariff adjustment” was the term used – could even be in the offing, after the adjustment last October, in 2020 and 2021. That column item came with a photo of a smug-looking Manila Water president in his best GQ pose.

OK, the profit statement was issued before the dry days, and yes, private enterprise must be allowed to make money, get a return on the investments they made when they took over the water concessions. But in this case, our concessionaire obviously and unarguably dropped the ball, despite Mr. GQ’s insistence that they have not been remiss. So why did our faucets suddenly run dry last March 7 without any warning? Ni ha ni ho, as we like to say, and for a time during those first two dry days their phones rang unanswered – perhaps because they had no answer? Many theories were floated and reasons given about this unusual, horrible situation – , the weather, increased demand, delayed infrastructure, conspiracy, mismanagement, greed, shortsightedness…

Amidst all the obfuscating, after a couple of days water finally began to flow out of taps again, not all the time but now at least according to a predictable schedule so people are able to schedule when they can make ligo (bath) and laba (laundry) and fill those pails and cans for when water supply is shut off for so many hours at night.