EDITORIAL - 7 billion and counting

The world’s population hit seven billion yesterday, with the fastest rate of increase seen in poor countries that cannot provide the basic needs of their citizens.

The Philippines, where a newborn baby was also picked yesterday to symbolize the seven-billionth addition to the global population, is among the countries with the highest population growth rates. And while the Philippines is not as hard-pressed as the poorest countries to meet the demands of its booming population, the inability of the state to meet the ever-growing demands of its people is evident everywhere.

All public facilities and basic services are overwhelmed, from traffic-choked roads to schools that are forced to hold three shifts daily to accommodate enrollment. In many government hospitals, mothers must share not only rooms but also beds, and overcrowding is so bad infants have died of sepsis. There are never enough cops to keep everyone safe. And the lack of employment opportunities has forced a tenth of the country’s population to seek jobs overseas, breaking up families even as the massive remittances allow political leaders to maintain the dysfunctional status quo.

A visit to any of the slums in Metro Manila and other urban centers will give the most graphic manifestation of high population growth with no corresponding improvement in the state’s ability to meet the needs of its people. In this environment, millions of impoverished Filipino women have no access to reproductive health services because several male senators, pandering to the medieval leaders of a male chauvinist faith, are sitting on a bill that would guarantee universal reproductive health care.

As the world’s population breached seven billion, experts warned of a looming global food crisis. The Philippines, where catastrophic flooding has devastated farmlands in Central Luzon, is likely to be among those hardest hit. We import our staple, rice, and many other basic requirements of national production, and export our most precious resource, our people. The country’s symbolic seven-billionth global inhabitant, Danica May Galura, weighed 2.5 kilos at her birth yesterday at the government-run Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital. With her family’s meager income, she is among the most vulnerable to the hardships arising from the failure to cope with the needs of a booming population.