Reality check
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s recent statement about a downplayed water crisis during the recent 6th Edition of the Water Philippines Conference and Exposition was a reality check.
“I was very surprised in the past years, even as a senator, even as a governor, that no one was speaking about water problems. Whereas every single urban community and even some rural communities in the Philippines had a water crisis,” the President said.
Truth be told, billions of people around the world have no access to safely managed drinking water. As a global problem, water constraint afflicts developed and developing countries like the Philippines.
According to water.org statistics, of the country’s 109 million population, 57 million people lack access to a reliable, safely managed source of water, while 9 million Filipinos are enduring unimproved, unsafe and unsustainable water sources.
Global numbers show more than a fourth, 2.1 billion out of 7.5 billion people worldwide, still lack safely managed drinking water. Rapid population growth and poor governance in putting up the necessary water supply infrastructure and systems to meet the growing demand for water of a rapidly increasing population have been blamed for the global water shortage.
When the Chief Executive said that he “cannot emphasize enough the importance of the water
“Rapid population growth and poor governance in putting up the necessary water supply infrastructure and systems have been blamed for the global water shortage.
“Managing the country’s water resources and responding to the current environmental challenges through a concerted government effort is befitting of the 22 March World Water Day celebration themed ‘Leaving no one behind.’
situation here in the Philippines and how it affects our daily lives,” it should bring us back to the reality of how powerful water is in connecting every aspect of life.
Quoting from a BYJU study: “All the biochemical processes which occur in plants and animals, our surroundings, etc. require water to function. It is required for the existence of life on earth as it is an essential component of all biological processes. We cannot imagine our lives without the presence of water.”
Given that around 1 in 10 Filipinos still do not have access to improved water sources, Marcos Jr. made an apt call to take an urgent collective step towards attaining water security and providing safe, adequate, affordable, and accessible drinking water for the people.
Among the many other rights, water (a main constituent of Earth’s hydrosphere) is one, too. Anyone and anywhere we are, the water right is undebatable because that inorganic compound with the chemical formula H2O — a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance — is an extremely important resource that we cannot live without.
With the President’s approval of an Executive Order creating the Office of
Water Management, it is hoped that the inadequate and intermittent water supply in rural areas, low-income urban cities, and the foremost urban center — Metro Manila — will be a thing of the past.
Managing the country’s water resources and responding to the current environmental challenges through a concerted government effort is befitting of the 22 March World Water Day celebration themed “Leaving no one behind.”
Now that the OWM is born, may the governance issues and inefficiencies of government-managed water utilities resulting in poor access to adequate and quality water be buried with the sorrows of people who have no choice but to put up with waterless homes.