The ‘candidate of water’
Admit it, weren’t you one of the Metro Manilans, beholding the arrival of Typhoon “Lando” and hearing of the lashing rains it had unleashed, who were secretly rejoicing? I bet that foremost on your mind was the thought that at least the dams that contain the metropolis’ water supply were now full (if not overflowing). And with the dams full, weren’t we now at least assured of a steady water supply to see us through the worst of the El Niño drought?
I admit to sharing these sentiments, even as I beheld rural folk fleeing their homes to escape the floods caused by the released dam water. Much the same way that I shrugged off the news more than a month ago that the supply of water meant for irrigation in Bulacan would be cut in favor of water consumers in Metro Manila.
Even if, as pointed out by Dondi Alikpala, former chair of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and now senior technical adviser of the “Be Secure” project, the decision adversely affected thousands of farmers who were deprived of a livelihood.
This is why water is very much a “political” commodity. Many of us take it for granted, or assume that we will always have water for our use. But water is not always distributed equitably, nor is access to it always available. Sometimes, it depends on where we live, or what we can afford. Metro Manilans certainly enjoy advantages over residents in poorer or more remote areas. Complaints of water supply cutoffs or poor water pressure from city dwellers are aired regularly and sometimes even dramatically on the early-evening news shows. Although, to be fair, TV news networks also carried reports of the early stages of drought by broadcasting shots of stunted crops and hardened earth in hard-hit areas.
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Or take the case of a dispute some years back between Cebuanos and Boholanos over the proposal to access water from a river in Bohol and pipe this into Cebu for use by the water-deprived factories in the booming Mandaue-Lapu-Lapu area.
Although the proponents from Cebu were willing to pay Bohol for the fresh water supply and shoulder all the costs of the project, the people of Bohol vigorously opposed it. One politician even rather histrionically declared that “the sons of Dagohoy will not submit to the sons of Lapu-Lapu!”
The project did not push through, but the dispute just goes to show how water can be used as a political tool and how end-users, who usually take this resource for granted, can suddenly wake up to its importance once their supply is threatened.
Water is on everyone’s lips at the moment, given the arrival of El Niño—said to be one of the worst episodes in recent decades—which is threatening the nation’s water supply. But water has become an issue not just on our shores but elsewhere in the world as well. A briefer by Mary Ann Dickinson, who certainly knows whereof she speaks, being the CEO of the Alliance for Water Efficiency in drought-ridden California, shows just how global the water problem has become.
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Drought and scarcity, she points out in a presentation, is found “in every continent, including Australia, the Middle East, Southern Europe, Africa, China and the US, and afflicts four of every 10 people.”
In Jordan, said Maysoon Zoubi, who used to head the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, efforts have gone beyond the search for new sources of water to thinking of ways to make use of so-called “gray” water for purposes like agriculture and irrigation.
In the Greater Sydney area, said Dr. Stuart White of the Institute for Sustainable Futures of the University of Technology Sydney, the response to the periodic droughts that affect Australia has been to develop new technologies and approaches to reduce the demand for “clean” water and promote “more efficient” use of water.
Here in the Philippines, the US Agency for International Development has partnered with local experts to “increase sustainable access to water supply and wastewater treatment services; and increase resilience to climate-related water stress and hydrological extremes.”
Dubbing the project “Be Secure,” for Water Security for Resilient Growth and Stability, the proponents provide technical expertise to local governments on the design of water engineering projects; help in the compilation of a national database to improve the management of water resources in the country; help strengthen and develop wastewater treatment policies, laws and plans; and rehabilitate water supply facilities and systems damaged by natural calamities.
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Bebet Gozun, former environment secretary and Climate Resiliency team leader for “Be Secure,” points out the many “holes” and gaps in water policy here. For one, responsibility for securing, accessing, distributing and keeping safe water supply throughout the country is given to a slew of water concessionaires, distributors and policymakers.
“We need a Department of Water,” stresses Gozun, but although bills proposing the creation of such an office have been in the pipeline for almost a decade, none has been passed into law. “We’d rather wait for the elections to be over,” she adds when asked who they’re approaching for yet another stab at creating a “water department.”
Yes, water is necessary for survival, and certainly ranks among the top priorities of human beings. But why is it that water—given El Niño and the consequent drought—hardly figures in the campaign stumps of the different candidates? Who will be the “candidate of water”?
