Water Shortage in The Philippines - Essay Example

 Water Shortage in The Philippines Introduction Among the resources found on earth, water is the most important of all. This is mainly because of a number of reasons, which exist to make this resource a valuable one. Each and every country in the world works daily to ensure that the water resource is available to each and every citizen in an unlimited capacity. The efforts are further catalyzed by the United Nation’s requirement, which is to the effect that every human being should be availed fifty litres of water daily. This is to be used for domestic purposes such as drinking, washing and cooking. Despite the water resource being so crucial to human life and existence, many countries in the world still struggle to ensure that evert citizen has access to enough water ona daily basis. While some of the causes of water shortage may be attributed to natural phenimena, some of the human domestic and industrial activities are to blame for water scarcity. In recent years, the Asian continent has witnessed its countries struggling to ensure efficient supply of water to the citizens. The Philippines is among the casualties. Lying on an area of approximately three hundred square kilometres, Philippines is the 12th most populated country in the world[WPR14]. Lying behind Mexico and slightly above Ethiopia in terms of population, the country boasts a current population of a bout a hundred million people[WPR14]. The Philippines enjoys trpical climatic conditions within the pacific, which tend to suggest that such a country is not supposed to be among struggling with water shortage. However, the case is contrary to that. With a population that heavily relies on agricultural activities for lifelihood, the Philippines, and especially the capital city of Manila, is threatened to a large extent with water scarcity[AsiNd]. At this point, it is worth noting that it is not the population’s livelihood that entirely depends on the water resource, but also the country’s economy, which is highly agriculturally defined. This is evidenced by the land’s 15,500 square kilometres under rice irrigation[AsiNd]. Causes of Water Shortage in The Philippines The question that looms is therefore, what are the causes of water scarcity in the Philippines? This is a question that evry individual in the country asks whenever the issue is mentioned. It is worth noting that as much as water shortage in the country has not been declared a national crisis, the current water level conditions are suggesting it is. The capital city of Manila is among the regions that has been worse hit by the water crisis. One of the major cause that has been cited by many is poor or rather, inefficient resource management[Lop11]. This is not a new term at all. It is a matter of common sense that resource management is an issue of great importance. In Manila, unfortunately, the importance of proper water resource management has never been common to all. As much as the government has been stressing on the importance of proper water usage, many settlers within the country’s capital have been taking the call for granted. In the yearv 2011, the cabinet secretary in charge of water confessed that the mentropilitan, and the country at large, was under a water scarcity threat, due to poor water management strategies[Lop11]. The public is the first to carry the blame. This is because of the inefficient ways in which the population within the country, and especially the urban population, use the water resource. People are utilizing the water resource, without caring that being a natural resource, it might not always be available. Cases of taps left runnings, water pipe destruction by members of the public and general water wastage have increased in the last few years[Lop11]. People in the urban centres have in the past taken advantage of the large amounts of water and have used it irresponsibly, something that has led to the current state of affairs. In the urban centers, leaking pipes has been the major cause of water shortage. Large amounts of water being trasnported to the various households, offices, industries and other buildings are rendered useless after leaking from the transportation pipelines. According to the Water for the People Network, more than half of its water allocation in Mayniland are wasted due to leaking pipes and pilferege. Another factor that has been mentioned as a threat to water security is the weather conditioned, best described as ‘Elnino[Bar14]. This is a type of weather that involves continuous rainfall, but one which is of no great importance due to the very minimal amounts of downpour[Bar14]. The current situation has seen heavy cloud gather above the metropilitan land, but unfortunately no rain is seen. This situation even drove the government to carry out cloud seeding operations in order to artificially induce rainfall, but that has not done enough to bring the water levels to the desired heights. Impact of Water Shortage in The Philippines The effects of water shortage in the country has been so adverse. The country’s population is not supplied with the required or even an amount close to the recommended 50 litres on a daily basis. What has even made it worse is the water rationing, a measure that has been recently taken by the government to ensure that water is evenly distributed across the region[Mon10]. An investigation carried by the Water for the People Network in Mayniland, showed that only 60% of the 760,000 households in the service area of west zone have a 24-hour water supply system. This indicates that 40% of the households within the area do not enjoy an around the clock water supply[Lop11]. This is very unfortunate. Another impact of the water shortage has been reduced food production. As earlier mentioned, the country’s population and the economy at large highly depends on the agricultural sector. Rice is the major crop farmed in the Philippines. As the custom has been, the crop is grown under irrigation, and this therefore means that large amounts of water are needed on adaily basis in the irrigation farms and schemes. The recent water cricis has seen a reduction in the amounts of rice and other crops harvested annually, something which ha scaused an increase in food prices. This has also had a negative impact on the economy of the country, which heavily depends revenues fro exportation of agricultural produce, especially rice. Solutions to the Water Shortage Problem Just as the cabinet secretary in charge of water had put it, the problem of water in the country has to be attended to swiftly, lest the country finds itself dealing with a drought[Lop11]. There are a number of measures that can be undertaken in order to deal with the situation in the Philippines. Creation of aditional dams in the metropolitan city of Manila would be a big milestone in the positive[Coc10]. Currently, the Angat dam is the sole water resouivor in the capital city, a factor that has led to rapid depletion of the water in the dam[Elc14]. In the month of September this year, the metropolitan water works and sewage system gave a report to the effect that the country should be awakened by the 182.53 metres level in the dam[Elc14]. This was said to be not a comforatble figure, as it falls below the minimum 200 metres. This shows that the water level in the dam is reduced a great deal, and this can be attributed to the fact that the entire Manila population heavily relies on it. The construction of additional one or two dams would work to ensure that there are enough water resovoirs available to sustain the millions of individuals within the country’s capital[Elc14]. Water recycling is also another alternative that the country can go for in its water management strategy[Coc10]. This process involves treating waste water from households and industries, so as to be used again by the population. This, however, calls for the establishment of highly efficient water and sewage treatment stations in the country, if the population is to be effectively protected from water-borne deseases. The water treatment stations would also seerve an extended purpose of ensuring that the waste water released ito the various lakes and ocean are free from effluent materials that would pollute the water therein[Coc10]. The regular inspection and maintenance of water transportation pipes is another measure that would work to reduce the amounts of water wasted on a daily basis[Lop11]. As mentioned above, leaking pipes nad pilferege has been cited as one of the major causes of water shortage in the metropilitan city of Manila and the entire Philipppines at large. Fixing such pipes would prevent leakages. This measure was implemented in Maynilad in the year 2010, and as a result, approximately 200 million litres of water were recovered per day[Lop11]. The responsibility of fixing water transportation pipes should, however, not be left just to the government and other relevant bodies and authorities. Every citizen should take it as their responsibility to try and repair or report instantly any damage witnessed or ocassioned on such transportation pipes. As much it is not liked by many, water rationing can be resorted to, especially in areas where the public has proved to be perrenially irresponsible. This would work to ensure that the various households within the urban centers are supplied with only the amount sof water that would be enough to satisfy their basic needs. This would work to reduce water wastage, as every household will seek to responsibly utilize the litle that is availed to them. This would also discourage the issue of running taps as it has been reported with regard to the urba households[Lop11]. Conclusion As much as there are many actions and directions that can be taken by the government to address the issue of water scarcity in the Philippines, one thing remains to be paramount. The population, both urban and rural needs to be educated and properly sensitized on the importance of proper water usage and management. The fact that water is a natural resource capable of extinction needs to be brought to there attention, so as to instill the necessary fear in them. Civic education would also work to ensure that the country’s citizens appreciate and identify with the various measures taken by the government and other relevant bodies and authorities to deal with the situation, such as water rationing. If all this is done, then the issue of water scarcity in the Philippines will be a thing of the past in the next few years. But if the necessary steps and measures will not be taken by the relevant authorities and other concerned parties, then the Philippines is in great danger of ending into a complete water crisis. Works Cited WPR14: , (WPR 1), AsiNd: , (Asianinfo.org 1), Lop11: , (Lopez 1), Bar14: , (Barnaby 1), Mon10: , (Mongaya 1), Coc10: , (Dayao 1), Elc14: , (Elchico 1), Read More