ni Ma. Luisa Macabuhay-Garcia
NAGBABALA ang dating pinuno ng Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) na si Dondi Alikpala na lalala pa ang krisis sa tubig sa bansa sa mga susunod na taon kung mananatiling walang iisang ahensya o departamento ang pamahalaan na mangangasiwa para lumikha ng mga alternatibong paraan upang agarang malunasan ang suliraning ito na kinakailangan ng mga Pilipino sa pang araw-araw nilang pamumuhay.
Sa katunayan aniya ay may mga rehiyon na sa Pilipinas ang kasalukuyang nakararanas na ng “water scarcity “o kakulangan sa tubig kabilang ang National
Capital Region 7, sabi ni Alilkpala sa forum sa lungsod Quezon kamakailan.
Ang krisis sa malinis na inuming tubig ay posibleng lalala pa sa mga susunod na taon at marami pa anoya sa mga lalawigan na ang nanganganib makaranas ng “shortage” bukod pa sa maraming rehiyon na wala pa ring maayos na pinagkukunan simula’t sapul. Ang iba rito ay umaasa lamang sa mga iniigib na tubig sa pila balde, lawa, ilog, deepwell, o balon, at umaasa sa mga water refilling station mula sa malalayong lugar para sa kanilang inumin,sabi ni Alikpala.
“I think’s it’s a problem of management because if you look at a place like Singapore.It has no watersheds.But they are able to provide water.If they can do it we can do it.And this salination is one of the ways they are doing it.They also contain their drainage.Kino-collect nila, pumupunta sa reservoir. Tayo ‘yung sa drainage natin tinatapon natin and then they have something called new water which is sewer water, they clean. Our problem in terms of speaking now of sanitation.The definition here is how many people have access to toilet. It’s over 80 percent, but it’s still not good enough.In terms of water volume that we treat siguro wala pang 10 percent of the whole country.
Siguro sa Metro Manila 26 percent of sewer we don’t have data on that, so we still have a long way to go.Mahirap i-manage. Siguro we can go by city by city, province by province. But there are ways to do it.So this is not only a water scarcity issue.It’s probably a water management scarcity issue.If Singapore can do it, we can do it.But we have to be a little more creative.The awareness has to be high.In Singapore may kusa sila.We take for granted this aspect dahil binabaha tayo.But at the same time wala tayong tubig na maiinom. Maraming tao sa Pilipinas walang tubig,”ang sabi ni Alikpala sa isang forum sa lungsod Quezon kamakailan.
Sa ngayon ay isinusulong pa lang sa Kongreso ang isang batas na lilikha ng isang ahensya ng pamahalaan na sesentro sa pangangasiwa sa tubig na kinakailangan ng mga mamamayan. Ang mayroon pa lang aniyang ahensya ng pamahalaan sa tubig ngayon ay ang Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) na isa lamang regulatory body na ngangasiwa ng mga concessionaires a nagsu-suplay ng tubig sa Metro Manila at mga karatig lalawigan sa Rizal.
Ayon sa tala, 11 millyon o 53 porsiyento ng pamilyang Pilipino ang wala pa ring access sa malinis na inuming tubig. 39 porsiyento umano ay kulang sa sanitasyon.
“Philippines is one of the water that is blessed in water rainfall we are probably number 8 in the world. Even if there is much rainfall we have a problem.One is we are an archipelago.Which means we need to store in water.vWe are talking about forest that is denuded.The role of forest to watershed is that it stores that water that pushes overtime. Unfortunately, that’s not happening.So when we look at that plus we have a growing population.We look at water per capita. How much water is available per person we are one of the lowest in Southeast Asia. So that means we have to manage whatever little water we have left. And if you look at it over the Philippines it becomes more interesting,” sabi ng dating ater Chief.
“The UN have some threshholds. If you have less than 500 cubic meters water available per person per year, those water goes to various uses, irrigation, hydro, below 500 that’s like parang ano yan parang Middle East.That’s absolute scarcity.If it’s below 1000 cubic meters that’s water scarcity. And then if it’s below 1,700 cubic meter per person that’s water stress and pagdating sa water, ang absolute scarcity, na ang NCR, region 4, region 4 A and Region 3.And that’s because even with the volume of water, the population is high.So on per capita basis,it’s really small.That’s less than 500 and overtime as your population grows, that volume becomes lower and lower,” sabi ni Alikpala.
Idinagdag pa niya na ayon sa poverty indicator of 2020, tanging 54.1 kada tao o 54.1 porsiyento lamang ng mga pamilya sa Pilipinas ang may maayos na koneksyon ng tubig sa Pilipinas.”Only 54 percent. So that means either yung balance will either will get yung nagpipila balde, ‘yung culminal faucet or they have to get from point sources, mga wells, they have to go to the river,mga ponds for their water.What’s also interesting is of the 54.1 actually if you break it down per region, I think only 3 regions have over 50 percent and 98 or 92 percent yata sa NCR na. So most of the regions of the 17 regions of the country about 14 regions are actually below 50 percent and mostly at the 30 percent.So in 2019 if you remember ng Nawalan tayo ng tubig before we were getting water from the city.That’s a regular occurrence outside of Metro Manila.Most people don’t have access to water. And if you don’t have tap water, people get sick.It’s hard to push for economic development.Some children will not go to school. Kung babae ka may period ka, di ka na lang papasok kung walang tubig yung eskuwelahan. Maraming issues related to water 48 percent of people are relying on refilling stations sa ibang mga isla dahil archipelago tayo,” dagdag ni Alikpala.
“There is supply issue and quality issue.We only relied on Angat now, 96 percent for so many years. Diversify your sources, so kung may problema ang isa dapat may isa. kung naninilaw yung tubig sa Laguna lake dapat me alternatibo….. the problem sa Laguna lake is treatment.The problem with laguna lake we are not treating well.We have to adjust if there is the technology,kaya lang nagmamahal.”
Sumasang ayon naman siya sa panukalang Department of Water Management na ahensya ng tubig na kasalukuyang isinusulong sa Kamara . “For now there is no water agency in the Philippines.
MWSS is for Metro Manila only. LWUA (Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) is only for 1,600 water districts only.
Samantala, sinabi naman ni Roy Bjorklund, Technical Director at Co-Founder ng Aqua Veritas na sa Sweden gumagamit sila ng nasa container van na computerized water treatment plant ng naturang kompanya upang sipsipin kahit ang maruruming mga tubig kahit sa mga pinakamalalapit na ilog sa mga komunidad para maging malinis at puwedeng inumin.
Ayon kay Dr.Sunshine Tan na isang chemical engineer,b ang kanilang kompanya ay gumagamit ng teknolohiya na may reverse osmosis, na pinakamatinding computerized na teknolohiya sa water treatment kaya kayang linisin kahit ang mga tubig kanal, Pasig river at karagatan upang gawing drinking water.
Sinabi naman ni Klas Lundgren,CEO Lux Solana Energy Corp na ang teknolohiyang ito ay mga lumang teknolohiya na siyang ginagamit sa Middle East countries sa mga disyerto at kumukuha ng tubig sa dagat para gawing malinis na inumin.