A looming water crisis

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

A new Asian Development Bank study reports that the Philippines ' water resources are fast deteriorating due to rapid urbanization, citing that only 33 percent of the country's river systems as suitable supply sources and up to 58 percent of the groundwater now contaminated. The ADB warned that water availability in the Philippines could be “unsatisfactory” in 8 of its 19 major river basins and in most major cities before 2025. The same study pointed out that with the depletion of groundwater resources is already a problem in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu.

The report stressed that although groundwater resources are generally abundant and of adequate quality for domestic purposes, poor environmental management is leading to the pollution of downstream watercourses and aquifers. The country's solid waste disposal and landfill sites were also singled out for being poorly operated and maintained, allowing dangerous leachate to pollute our water resources.

If the water running from our taps is to remain clean and clear by 2025, we must all heed the very grim warning of the ADB study on the outlook of our water resources. One look at any body of water in urban areas will immediately show us that most urban dwellers still see our rivers and streams as giant garbage bins and septic tanks. Our solid waste management practices and public landfills hardly meet international standards and yet continue to operate out of necessity even if they obviously endanger the water table underneath.

Just because we do not see it, we find it convenient to ignore the fact that the city's and our personal pumps that draw and deliver water to our taps could be dipping into those same polluted aquifers. We must act now while the water is still clean, clear, more or less potable, and save-able.

We cannot wait for the water from our taps start to smell like garbage or turn murky before acting by reviewing our waste management practices in our own homes and demanding more responsibility from our local governments when it comes to waste management and in enforcing the laws that were meant to protect this precious resource.*