Many Metro-Manilans suffer from the common cold all through out the year. Said to be caused by a virus, people are told there is only relief, there is no curative drug or medicine against the cold virus that will vanish it permanently. However, people are advised to do this and that to avoid catching the virus or wait for it to subside and be gone until the next time.
Water shortage under the rubric of domestic water supply can be recurrent but unlike the common cold, the water shortage can be more irritating and disgusting in the way it can make people helpless until the time it’s gone. No single person or family or community just can’t provide a permanent solution. Water shortage in Metro Manila seems deplorable to those affected because it does not happen to other people in other places or cities. And there seems to be several and not one individual or business or government agency directly to blame.
This problem about water begins with simple thoughts. Water comprises 71% of the earth surface. WATER makes up 65% of the adult human body. Conversely, hell or high water besides being a hot (not spicy) place like the underworld could mean many scary undesirable thing.
Among simple chemical compounds like alcohol, salt or sugar, shabu, cocaine, fentanyl, or probiotics, etc., WATER because of its divine cycle should be PLENTIFUL everywhere, where people decide to live and die. After all from mountain and jungle caves civilization began beside bodies of WATER, along side of great rivers like the Nile of Egypt, the Ganges of India, the Yangtse of China, the Mississippi and the Hudson of USA, the Danube of western Europe, the Rhine of Germany, the Seine of Paris, the Severn of Wales, the Thames of London and Manila’s polluted Pasig River.
In Canada and the USA and in other more advance countries there is always big water tank or tower strategically located in villages, towns and cities built to insure safe, consistent and constant water supply. Lakes are the dependable sources of fresh water supply. Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world.
Besides the clouds in the sky, WATERSHEDS comprise the permanent source of nourishment of lakes and rivers; by tributaries as clean channels of surface and sub-surface water. The live or dead condition of WATERSHEDS determine the live or dead state of river or lake biology.
Manila should not or never should have experienced WATER shortages. Philippines has been endowed with 421 rivers (of which 50 are biologically dead) and 100 lakes and bounded east and west by robust seas. The march to progress of civilization of any race or people could be manifested by the “health” and beauty of its lakes and rivers.
Must there be a WATER SHORTAGE in cosmopolitan Manila? Do WATERSHEDS still exist to give LIFE to Laguna Lake and Pasig River. The aging dams are known more for their decreased water levels and subsidence of their water content than perhaps by their names. During summer why do the now polluted waters of Manila Bay flow up to replenish the black waters of the Pasig and to augment content of the water-lily clogged Laguna Lake? SAD! Very sad that meteorologist and hydrologists could cry. But people remain unaware of those responsible are capable of snake or crocodile tears.
The scarcity of knowledge and the plenitude of indifference about how WATER, WIND and FIRE affect the modern man is the tragedy—thank God—of a few places (like Manila?) in civilized earth. In the days before religion and the Bible, before Jesus Christ, before Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Anglicism, born again Christianity, before commercial sects and congregations, History says the people like the cave men, the rainforest men, the early hunters, farmers and fisherman worship NO God except NATURE that gives them life and survival. Their DIETY was altogether WATER, WIND and FIRE. These three entities provide them the ingenuity for survival, the shock and awe of their existence.
In the whole country, Metro Manila can claim to have the highest intelligence quotient (IQ) of residents because Metro Manila is where you find Offices of the All bright and powerful officials and employees of the three GOVERNING branches: the Executive, the Legislative and he Judicial co-equal branches of governance. YET, sadly yet these HIGH IQued people can’t be exiled to the days of never-never caves and primitive men of the WATER, WIND and FIRE.
IT IS APRIL 2019. It is the month of WATER and FIRE. Water from typhoons and Fire from the heat of summer, the heat of diesel engines trafficked, unmoving in hot cemented or asphalted roads. FIRE FROM LACK OF WATER?
And of course, there is Amihan which bring the trade WINDS bringing rains from the north east and there is Habagat too a prevailing wind from the west causing frequent strong rainfall. It is during the summer months characterized by shortages of domestic water and occurrence of fire that people get to know whether the government has the capacity and ability to provide real and responsive public service. The rainy season demonstrates the kind of water conservation capability of the government have to provide adequate domestic water supply.
Not being cavemen or primitive rainforest tribesmen, these intelligent modern denizens of the three co-equal branches of Governance, aside from resting their thick butts in soft, cushioned executive swivel chairs, what have they done so far for a BENEFICIAL Wind, Water, and Fire?
Of course, there are the hope: PAGASA, the weather agency, the metro water authority, the natural resources department, the public works department, the disaster and calamity council, land, soil and water management agencies, the rescue units of the uniformed forces, etc. to face, confront and tackle WATER, WIND and FIRE. Of course, these agencies deserved the credit of being responsive to the problems of their being. However, to be proactive and be effective is another question the answer to which might explain the reasons behind the annual water shortage.
It remains though, may be forever that these agencies will not outlive their usefulness as long as there exist in nature WATER, WIND and FIRE. ****