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OPINIONS
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(August
25– August 31, 2008) In-Depth Juan L.
Mercado Why this
yawn? MILF rebels are shooting
up the place – to secure peace, they claim. President Gloria Macapagal whoops along charter change – to secure peace,
she says. They make it tough for
ordinary yokels, like us, to focus on things that really matter. Like what? Basics like water, for one. Senator Barry
Goldwater ticked off three things that a man will fight over: “Water, women and gold—in that order.” Indeed, survival hinges on water. Next door
to Today, 2,500
scientists from over 180 countries, including the This year’s
overarching theme is ponderous: “Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean
and Healthy World with Special Focus on Sanitation”. You can boil it down to one word:
sanitation “About 1.8 million
children die each year from diarrhea and other filthy water-borne diseases. These deaths are preventable. “They dwarf casualties associated violent conflict,” UN Human
Development Report notes. “No act of terrorism generates economic devastation
on the scale of the crisis in water and sanitation.” “For millions of
people, not having a safe, private and convenient toilet facility is a daily
indignity as well as a threat to (health),” the report adds. “As a global
community, we face a vast deficit in sanitation…” Water-sealed
toilets, in fact, can cut incidence
of diarrhea by 70 percent. But the
daily lethal toll from the water and sanitation crisis bores yawns political
leaders Most of these officials are educated. They’re decent folk. So, why
this yawn? Because “this is a
constituency that lacks a voice in shaping national and international
perceptions of human security,” UNHDR adds. Most of the most affected are the poorest.
Disorganized, lacking in education, they are voiceless and invisible. The rough-hewn unpainted coffins of their
children don’t bring screaming headlines that the rich command. The sanitation
crisis is acute in “Perhaps, the
greatest obstacle is stigma,” the UN report adds. People are ashamed if they
lack sanitation facilities. Officials prefer to sweep the problem of open defecation
(“wrap and throw”) under the rug. This extorts a high cost in disease. Thus, the Four out of every
six today is Asian. The last flawed
census claims there were 88.5 million Filipinos in 2007—up from 19.2 million in 1948. And
our cities are “imploding”. Urban population
could grow by 70 percent in just 25 years, Asian Development Bank forecasts.
That’d require policy to ensure
massive shift in resources, including water. And food supplies could
constrict. Climate change may whittle down crop yields by 2.5 to 10 percent,
“There’d be 132 million people at risk of extreme hunger by 2050". Asia Day will
provide a platform for a discussion on investing more for sanitation,
expanding water flow for food production and increasing numbers of homes with
piped water. “That’s the supply track. Conservation is the
neglected track. Other sessions will be on protecting and managing water
basins and resources. “Throughout
literature, the man who poisons the well is the worst of villains,” we’re
told. Six barriers
interlock. Sanitation lags behind water policy. People see lack of clean
water as a more immediate threat than absence of a toilet Households perceive better sanitation as a
private amenity rather than a public responsibility. For many who live
below poverty lines, even low-cost latrines are beyond financial reach.
Women’s voices are smothered by those of men. And there are mismatches
between what people need and what governments offer. Millennium
Development Goal (MDG) No. 10 seeks “to halve, by 2015, the proportion of
people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and improved
sanitation. Can we meet that target? More Filipinos now
drink from improved water sources. 73 percent in 1990 to over 80 percent in
2004. But this is an overall figure
from National Statistical Coordinating Board.
It masks disparities between provinces. Seven out of 10 in Fast growing slum populations, in, cities have further widened the water and
sanitation gap from rural areas, says the latest Asia-Pacific MDG study series “In the
Philippines and Vietnam , still close to half their population in cities live
in slums.” In our cities, homes
with improved sanitation grew from 68 to 86 percent, NSCB said. “But the
striking gap between rich and poor has been widening,” Asian Development Bank
notes. “Anyone who can
solve the problem of water will be worthy of two Nobel prizes,” John F.
Kennedy wrote. “”One for peace and the other for science.” Look therefore
beyond the MILF and Gloria to Email: juan_mercado@prime.net.ph Ilocos
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