Metro, 8 major cities face severe water crisis — Angara

Nine major urban centers in the country may no longer have sufficient water supplies if water management remains inefficient, Sen. Edgardo Angara said yesterday.

Quoting a study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Metro Manila — home to 11 million people and one of Southeast Asia’s largest urban centers — is one of the nine major metropolitan areas deemed "water-critical" by the JICA study, Angara said.

The eight other cities in danger of losing their water supplies are Metro Cebu, Davao, Baguio, Angeles, Bacolod, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga.

"Cebu, for instance, is going to dry up in five years, unless Bohol allows its rivers to be diverted so that Mactan can be fed with fresh water," Angara said, citing data from the JICA study.

He said there is an urgent need for the government and private water companies to improve water management to sustain water supplies especially in the wake of global warming.

"Water is going to be a critical issue. In 20 years, water demand is expected to rise almost three-fold. As water resources are unevenly distributed throughout the country, we can soon expect water shortages in highly populated areas unless we do something about it now," Angara said.

Last year, United Nations issued a warning that the next expected root of conflict will be access to potable and safe water supplies.

Angara said Parañaque City is already observing that its groundwater is salinizing, or growing salty, and that the province of Bulacan is similarly under threat of having no irrigation for its farms.

Since the late 1970s, Parañaque’s groundwater levels dropped steadily after factories sprouted along the highway of the southern Metro Manila city and more subdivisions were built, forcing many residents to purchase water or build their own wells and install water pumps.

"Moreover, the acute seasonal problem of lack of access to potable water has large economic costs, as well as profound impact on the quality of life," Angara said.

"Poor water quality affects our citizen’s health, lost agricultural production, threatens food security, and a host of other damaging consequences," he said.

Angara said the massive destruction of forested watersheds due to logging and firewood cutting, as well as uncontrolled land use, unplanned agricultural expansion and haphazard urbanization have contributed to the depletion of the country’s water supply.

"Therefore, we must intensify our efforts, starting with bringing the task of managing water resources and regulating water use down to the provincial, city, town and barangay levels," he said.