Press Release
February 23, 2007

Recto seeks P15 B a year budget for clean water

Senator Ralph Recto said government should spend P15 billion a year in the next five years for projects that would ensure clean water for a burgeoning population that is expected to hit 150 million before 2030.

With climate change and deforestation threatening water sources, Recto said government should earmark allocable resources from the projected good revenue collection in the medium-term to rehabilitate both watersheds and waterworks.

Recto said government should rectify its error of bypassing water projects in its ambitious super regions plan. The P369 billion infrastructure blueprint does not allot a single centavo for projects that would produce a single drop of drinking water, he said.

There is a drought of funds for water projects in that blueprint. Water, which is a basic need for human survival, should be high on the list but the fact is, potable water projects simply evaporated from that list, Recto said.

Recto made the call as the country already the second lowest in terms of per capita water availability in Southeast Asia faces a serious water crisis when the population hits 100 million in seven years and 153 million in 23 years.

But even today, there are many places already reeling from lack of water, a development that bodes dire political consequences, he said. Lack of water dissolves peoples trust on the government. If it is feared that the next world war will be fought over water, the next people power here can be about water too, he said.

By 2025, water demand in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu , Davao , baguio , Angeles, Bacolod , Iloilo , Cagayan de Oro and Davao would have tripled to 3,995 million metric cubic meters per year from the 1995 demand of 1,303 million cubic meters, far outstripping groundwater availability of 759 million cubic meters, Recto said, citing a Japanese government funded study.

At present, for lack of access of clean drinking, 500,000 Filipinos are downed yearly by diarrhea, cholera, typhoid and other water-borne diseases, which account for three in every 10 illnesses, Recto said.

This is not surprising as 58 percent of groundwater sampled is contaminated with coliform and needs treatment, Recto said, quoting a 2003 World Bank study.

That same study pegs at P3 billion a year the medical expenses, hospitalization costs and income losses caused by drinking dirty water, Recto added. Actually, we dont need statistics to tell us that many people are having a hard time getting clean water.

The plight of the residents of southern Metro Manila represents a clear example, Recto said.

He said the plan of the MWSS to build a P5.6 billion pumping station and storage to service Las Pinas , Muntinlupa, Paranaque which is included in the super regions wish list while a good one falls under the water distribution aspect and certainly not the tapping of a new water source for Metro Manila , which experts are one in saying we should be doing now because we should not be solely relying on Angat.

Recto was referring to the Bulacan dam which captures water runoff from the Sierra Madre and brings this through an underground tunnel to La Mesa Dam.

By project, the super regions plan earmarks P90.2 billion for roads, P51.8 billion

for airports, P15.8 billion for seaports, P12.6 for irrigation, P5 billion for bridges,

P180.1 billion for rail, and P13.5 billion for other projects which include IT activities

and the MWSS pumping station in southern Metro Manila.

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