Taking stock and planning the use of precious water resource

MANILA, Philippines - World Water Day is held annually on March 22 as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

Water utilities and communities across the nation should take stock of their water resources and initiate both short-term and long-range plans to prevent a crisis in the usage of the earth’s most precious natural resource.

This was stressed recently by former senator Heherson T. Alvarez, a member of the Climate Change Commission, on the eve of World Water Day which the United Nations has declared as March 22 every year.

The day is aimed at recognizing the importance of water, a resource that most of the world takes for granted in spite of the fact that significant areas of Africa, Asia and other regions are experiencing critical water shortages.

The world’s population has tripled during the last century and the use of renewable water resources has grown six-fold, Alvarez said.

“Within the next 50 years, the world population will increase by another 40 percent to 50 percent. Population increase and industrialization will exert tremendous   pressures on global water resources – and this will have serious consequences on the environment,” Alvarez stressed.

Alvarez pointed out that the Philippines, particularly in urban areas, is already beginning to suffer the consequences as expanding households and industries contribute to the growing pollution of rivers and lakes, and the depletion of aquifers.

“Unless we begin to plan and control water utilization on a region by region basis, our agricultural productivity and food security will soon be threatened,” the commissioner declared, saying that uncontrolled water use also has a profound impact on all ecosystems and their dependent species.

To the growing water crisis, the UN General Assembly responded by designating March 22, 1993 as the first World Water Day.

It was first formally proposed in Agenda 21 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Observance began in 1993 and has grown significantly ever since.