Water shortage — yet Metro Manila is sinking
By: Vicky De Guzman
Tags: Flooding, Philippines, Manila, Waterworld

An expression aptly describes what’s happening in Metro Manila and nearby provinces: Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink!

Everyone knows how the country’s premier region gets easily flooded even with just a few minutes of rainfall. Last week, towards the end of June, daily rain had resulted in ankle to waist-deep water in the streets of Manila and Quezon City (the country’s present and former capital, respectively).

The funny thing is, both cities are still reeling from a water supply shortage incurring 8-to-12-hour daily water cuts. Where did all the water go?

Big demand, low supply

When water shortage first hit Metro Manila in March, concessionaire Manila Water initially said it was due to the lack of water in Angat Dam due to the dry spell or El Niño. But when pressed to explain how come Maynilad was able to supply its customers (since both are getting supply from the same dam), Manila Water cited the growing population of its customers. Water supply just can’t keep up with the multiplying number of households and establishments.

Metro Manila has some 12 million residents on any given day, give or take. Many of these are from the provinces, they migrate here looking for greener pastures — not knowing all the pastures here have already dried up, literally and figuratively. Every minute or so, a baby or two is born. The country now has over 110 million mouths to feed — and to drink. So it would not be surprising if the supply of water gets depleted.

Last month, another congressional probe on the lack of water was held. One lawmaker asked Manila Water about the situation where new buildings, subdivisions and malls keep mushrooming amid the water dearth. Makes sense, why put up new edifices where, of course people will need water, and yet you cannot give enough supply to your existing customers. The answer given was they had put on hold all applications for new water lines. If this were true, we should see a stop in the construction of new houses and buildings until the water problem is solved.

Waterworld soon?

The scenario in the 1995 post-apocalyptic sci-fi film Waterworld is not an impossibility after all. Land is sinking across the globe. In Asia, Jakarta has been sinking fast — at a rate of 10 inches every year — and that about 40 percent of the metropolis now lies beneath sea level. In a few decades, scientists estimate that almost all of North Jakarta will be below sea level.

A similar situation had also been seen in Tokyo and Osaka, Shanghai, Hanoi, and Bangkok.

In Metro Manila, studies have shown that many areas have been sinking by as much 27 inches to 53 inches (or almost four and a half feet) in the last 30 years (1979 to 2009). Typhoon Ondoy showed us how much the situation has deteriorated.

Same thing is happening in Dagupan, Bulacan, Pampanga, San Pedro and Biñan in Laguna, and in Rosario in Cavite.

What is causing this? Here lies the irony of ironies — it’s water!

We are sinking in floodwater and yet we are lacking in water. The land is falling below sea level because we are drying up the water under the ground.

We all know that deep wells source water from aquifers or water reserves underground. But everything has its limits, and we have reached ours in many parts of the country. When water beneath our feet is depleted, the ground becomes unstable, the soil easily erodes and eventually sinks — or collapses as a sink hole.

Read the recent news about a truck that fell into a sink hole along Roxas Boulevard in Manila.

Another more obvious and well-known factor is the amount of garbage we are dumping into our waterways.

Most of our estuaries or esteros are now clogged beyond recognition with solid and human waste from informal settlers and legit residents alike. So when there is a downpour, rainwater has nowhere to go.

So there you go. No need to wonder why we are all in this sh*t together. The solutions are common-sense obvious. And unless we start implementing them, we better start learning how to live in stilt or boat houses and drink salt water.