Sustaining Our Water Resources

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Byline: Rafael D. Guerrero III, Ph.D.

OUR commemoration of World Water Day with the theme, "Water for Life" stressed that indeed, water is required by all living forms and is essential for our survival and continued existence. Water has become a critical resource because of our bourgeoning population, economic development, and environmental degradation. According to the United Nations (UN), about 1.1. billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 3-4 million humans die each year due to waterrelated diseases. In the Philippines, the Department of Health (DoH) reported that 93 Filipinos get sick of diarrhea every hour and about 25 die everyday.

A report of the World Bank showed that only 69 percent of Filipinos in 1995 had access to clean potable water. Of the 115 cities in the country, only six have sewerage systems. About 22 million metric tons of organic pollution are produced annually by domestic (48%), agricultural (37%) and …