Making every drop count
“WATER is not like oil. There is no substitute. If we continue to take it for granted, much of the earth is going to run short of water or food—or both.” This insight comes from a recent study made by the International Food Policy Research Institute and the International Water Management Institute entitled “Global Water Outlook to 2025: Averting an Impending Crisis.”
The report created three scenarios based on sophisticated computer modeling. The “business as usual” scenario sees substantial increases in global water consumption, resulting in lower levels of food production because competition from growing cities and industries worldwide would limit the amount of water available for irrigation. The environment would also sustain significant damage as water is diverted to agriculture, households and industry.
The “water crisis” scenario reveals even more dramatic increases in water consumption. Poor planning and lower levels of investment would significantly increase malnutrition and food insecurity, causing declines in food production and skyrocketing food prices.
The “sustainable water” scenario, on the other hand, shows global water consumption at 20 percent lower than “business as usual” levels, allowing for overall increases in food production and lower levels of food insecurity and malnutrition worldwide. This entails increased investment in improving water productivity, rural infrastructure and technological changes, as well as pricing water to reflect its cost and value.
The report concludes with these words: “A crisis is not inevitable. The world can achieve sustainable water use, but we must act now. The required strategies take not only money and political will, but time as well.”
This observation is particularly relevant today, when the urgent need is to promote efficient, equitable and sustainable use of water resources.
Secretary Lito Atienza of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is, therefore, on the right track when he recently invited foreign investors to invest in the country’s water sector. Among the viable areas for investment, he said, are desalination and wastewater treatment, water-supply projects, especially outside Metro Manila, and water-related projects such as sewerage and waste management.
It is good to know the DENR has already embarked on programs to make every drop of water count. Among these are water-supply projects for Metro Manila—where only 82.2 percent of the population is connected through piped water, with the remainder still getting water supply from private water deliveries or groundwater extraction through pumps—and for 432 priority municipalities; use of innovative water technologies like recycling, desalination and rainwater harvesting; promotion of water conservation; and strict enforcement of water-pollution laws.
Atienza points out that water scarcity is not our main problem, because we have an abundant water supply from rainfall, of which only 28 percent is used. The challenge, he says, is “bringing this excess water to where it is needed, when it is needed.”
Author: Ernesto Hilario [About Town]
Source: The Business Mirror, 3 July 2008
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