Water

"Issues on this precious resource will continue to hound us."

A recent article in the Financial Times caught my attention because it is portentous of events likely to happen in many parts of the world, especially in the tropics.

Ethiopia and Egypt are disputing the use of the water in the river Nile, the world’s longest river that empties into the Mediterranean after passing several countries in Africa.

The Nile has two major tributaries, the White Nile whose headwaters begin in Tanzania where the huge Lake Victoria sits, and goes through Uganda, Rwanda, the Congo, Kenya, Sudan and other countries, through Egypt where it empties into the sea.  The Blue Nile, though shorter, sources its water from Ethiopia.  The two rivers meet in Sudan, from whence the waters flow into Egypt. 

Ethiopia, one of the fast-rising economies in Africa, is building what it calls the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the upper reaches of the Blue Nile.  Egypt fears that when the dam is operational, it will restrict the flow of water into the Egyptian part of the river, which is lifeline for the country, whose crops are dependent on it for irrigation.

Cairo wants Addis Ababa to guarantee a minimum flow from the dam to maintain the level of its Aswan Dam farther downstream to ensure enough water for their agricultural and power generation requirements.  Ethiopia, which has had a long history of conflict with its northwestern neighbor, balks at Egypt’s demands.

The 4.8 billion dollar “renaissance” dam will be the largest hydropower project in Africa once it is completed by 2022, capable of generating 6 gigawatts of electricity. 

The Egypt-Ethiopia water conflict is but one of many possible conflicts between countries arising from the use of water resources.  India and Pakistan resolved their water conflicts by the Indus Water Treaty in 1960, creating a joint management body to oversee their shared water resources.

In the volatile Middle East, Turkey, Syria and Iraq have conflicts over the biblical Tigris and Euphrates rivers.  Similarly, the use of the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized is disputed by Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine. 

In the Indo-Chinese peninsula, Laos has been building hydroelectric dams and apart from their domestic use, they sell power to neighboring countries, principally Thailand.  With the help of China, the Laotians are now building another giant dam, and its neighbors feel that this will constrict the flow of water to the Mekong and Tonle Sap.

The bigger hold China has on the economies of the Indo-Chinese peninsulars, namely Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam is the geopolitical reality that the headwaters of their major rivers are situated in China, principally the Tibetan highlands, whose snow after the long winter flows into the low countries.

In the Philippines, many of whose islands are limestone formations with little topsoil and even less aquifers beneath the land surface, water has become such a precious commodity whose scarcity impacts not only on its disparate islands like Boracay, but on mega-cities like the national capital region and Cebu.

As far back as the time of President Cory, Gov. Lito Osmena had proposed to build a submarine pipe between his province and Bohol, to tap the Inabanga River and supply the water needs of the Cebuanos.  But Bohol would hear none of it.

Truth is, Cebu whose mountains are mostly denuded and even inhabited, has few sources of water.  Population pressures through the last 30 years have worsened the water problem of Cebu, particularly the capital city, neighboring Mandaue and Lapu-lapu.

Now the city officials are thinking of desalination as a source of potable water.  But the process, although improved through the years, can still be quite expensive.  Thus, many Cebuanos balk at the potential high cost of their daily water needs.  But then again, if push comes to shove, do they have much choice?

In the NCR area, we experienced extreme scarcity last summer, when the water level in Angat, which feeds La Mesa Dam, went down to precarious levels.  Angat also supplies irrigation water for Bulacan, and last summer, our water managers had to deprive the Bulacan farmers of water from their own source.

There was relief when the rains came in July, but now we are told the water levels in Angat have once again receded.  In some parts of Metro-Manila, the two water distribution facilities, privatized since the Ramos presidency, are limiting supply to certain hours of the day.

On the demand side, we keep increasing our numbers, and each added member of our race increases the water requirements, not to mention the number of tourists as well as the POGO employees we import.

On the supply side, our traditional water sources are affected by climate change.  It will get worse.

So our government has to look for additional sources, and good for Metro Manila, we have some other than Angat.

There’s Laguna de Bay.  There’s Wawa in Montalban.  Farther off, we could pump up the waters of Lake Taal, purify the same in Mount Gonzales, and let gravity course the water from pipes to the capital region, even neighboring Laguna.

But our private distributors, Manila Water for the eastern section, and Maynilad for the west, have done little to tap other sources, even if this is provided for in the concession agreement signed with MWSS or what we used to call Nawasa when NCR’s water service was privatized.

Neither have they built wastewater treatment facilities, so the Supreme Court no less has ordered them to immediately do so, but the construction timetable is not only too expensive; it would mean digging up our already traffic-choked streets.  That would not only worsen carmaggedon; it would mean absolute gridlock.

Fortunately, government has finally given the green light for the construction of Kaliwa Dam in location bordering Quezon and the Sierra Madre foothills of Rizal.  Once completed four to five years from now, that would relieve us of having to rely solely on Angat.

There are the usual objectors, from the Dumagats to environmentalists, as well as the noisy Left which rides on every issue that could unnerve government.  Of course, Duterte is not easily unnerved, which is why he keeps riding a motorbike despite his age and brittle bones. Or perhaps to get his mind off the so many problems he inherited from his Luzon predecessors by becoming the first president from Mindanao.

But water issues will continue to hound us, whether it is because costs need to be borne by ever-complaining consumers who multiply ever so often, even as climate change impacts negatively on the supply of this most basic of all commodities (other than air).