Summer and water scarcity

I would like to acknowledge two e-mail items. One was from Jose Jonathan L. Aizpuru from Wellington, New Zealand who wrote me he has been our "avid reader since time immemorial."

He corrected us, the family name of Roberto "Bebe" is spelled Aizpuru, with a "u" ending, not "o." His uncle "Bebe," he said, is the younger brother of his aunt Mila, Mrs. Wilmar "Boy" Drilon, our former Bacolod vice mayor.

The other e-mail came from Melchor Tumbos who asked us to write more about Partylist Congressman. He represents, he said, the AKAPIN (Alyansa ng may Kapansanan Pinoy) Partylist.

Akapin is the Partylist of the disabled, he said.

Tumbos said, I ended my piece with a question, "Do we need Partylist Congressmen?" I want to take that up later.

***

Meanwhile, we want to welcome more candidates who filed their certificates of their candidacy. Lawyer Andy Hagad is running as an independent Congressman in Bacolod. He will be fighting incumbent Monico Puentevella and fellow challenger Renecito Novero.

The Bacolod mayoralty will be a five-corner derby: incumbent Bing Leonardia and challengers ex-mayor Joy Valdez, ex-mayor Oscar Verdeflor, ex-Police Chief Vic Ponteras, and lawyer Joel Dojillo.

Vic Ponteras will file his candidacy at 8 a.m. today with his group marching from the lagoon to the Comelec.

An interesting fight is in the fourth district after Mrs. Gretchen Oppen Cojuangco withdrew her candidacy. La Carlota City Mayor Jeffrey Ferrer and Professor, an outstanding man of the academe, George Araneta Camposano.

These are two young capable men fighting it out. Jeffrey is the son of my late friend Piding Ferrer and George has been one of the brilliant students I had in college and later earned his Ph.D. degrees from Harvard and other well known schools abroad and held important positions in the top schools in the country.

This is a good fight. Jeffrey has the support of La Carlota and the Nationalist People's Coalition. George is running on his own and relying on his qualifications. He is from Bago which contributes more than half of the total votes of the fourth district.

***

Let us set politics aside for a while. Let us discuss the topic about water, especially in these summer months where almost everybody is shouting "Tubig!"

Read yesterday's editorial of this paper. It pictured and discussed water problems.

I like my friend Baciwa chairman Pompeyo Querubin wearing a T-shirt that proclaims "Good to the last drop." Pompey is spearheading water conservation.

I like that slogan "Good to the last drop." It conjures a lot of spicy anecdotes.

But that's Pompey's advocacy: conserve water.

***

The complaints today, especially in the rural areas, is that wells are drying up with the summer months. Iloilo reported it's worst hit. We are better off.

Our water quality in Bacolod is better and our supply is still a bit adequate, compared with Iloilo. If Iloilo has a problem, Cebu is worse.

It is predicted that the next World War will be fought on the issue of water.

It's ironic, water is best known and most abundant of all chemical compounds occurring in relatively pure form on the earth's surface.

Water covers about three-fourths of the earth's surface and permeates cracks and crevices of much of our solid land. The polar regions are overlaid with vast quantities of ice, and the atmosphere of the earth carries water vapor in quantities from 0.1 to 2 percent by weight.

It has been estimated that the amount of water in the atmosphere above a square mile of land on a mild summer day is in the order of 50,000 tons.

All life on earth depends upon water, the principal ingredient of living cells.

Yes, if Ceneco breaks down for a week, we can survive. But, if Baciwa breaks down even just for a day, disaster!

***

The Philippines as an archipelago has plenty of water. Our problem is surface water. Because of our burning of our forests, surface water has gone deeper. We are not short of water.

But our problem is like what poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote in his "Ancient Mariner" of "Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink."

Yes, Pompey, keep on campaigning for water conservation.

Water is very powerful. The continuous dripping of water can even soften and bore a hole in a hardened stone.*

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