Water Infrastructure: A
Dire Need
By:
Melody M. Aguiba
July 22, 2008
Five years ago, when Abigail’s family
moved to a subdivision in Montalban, one of the
things they enjoyed the most at their new house
was the splurge of strong water coming out of the
faucet.
Developed
by Sta. Lucia, the subdivision sourced water underground.
It gave out water 24-7 (24 hours, seven days) and
at a pressure the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage
System (MWSS) would have definitely approved.
But
it wasn’t too long until the Sta. Lucia housing’s
water flow came in trickles and then in drips. Three
years after, water supply visited the houses just
every other day.
Before water flow gets to dark brown
from the occasionally tainted lucid water, Sta. Lucia,
along with any other commercial firm, will no longer
be allowed to tap water underground.
The National Water Resources Board (NWRB) just issued a ban on water extraction
from deep wells all over Metro Manila and in all Rizal towns.
Of course issuance
of this ban under NWRB’s amended Resolution 904 is just one thing. Enforcement
of this prohibition is another.
And no matter how ordinary people ignore it,
enforcement is obviously upon any person who drinks water or who bathes with
it.
For groundwater exhaustion and the seeping in of untreated waste water into
the aquifer and into the seas poses serious damage on human health and the environment.
A Department of Health (DOH) study indicated that water from deep wells in certain
Metro Manila areas contain critical levels of lead, fluoride, mercury, aluminum,
cyanide, arsenic, boron, manganese, and other chemicals. These harmful elements
are found to harm the nervous system and disrupt other bodily functions like
that of the kidney and of the reproductive system and to cause cancer. The
National
Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) reported that Metro Manila,
based on a Manila South Harbor survey, is sinking (also called land subsidence)
as sea level has been rising at a rate of two to nine million millimeters per
year.
Such is blamed on excessive exhaustion of groundwater. Land subsidence
can cause damage to infrastructure—buildings, bridges, highways. Worse,
it can cause openings or cracks on the ground.
Also occurring with this phenomenon
is salty water’s intrusion into groundwater, deterioration of fault lines,
increasing flood depths and longer time for floods to subside, and increase in
high tides.
An alternative to the excessive use of groundwater is tapping of
surface water (rivers, lakes) which is the mandate of MWSS.
But there is another
serious water concern the Philippines has to work on—the treatment of waste
water.
Water consumption in the Philippine is placed at a rate of one cubic meter
(cu.m., 1,000 liters) per household per day, or around 15 million cubic meters
per household daily or 5.48 billion cu.m. yearly.
With such water volume used,
polluted water is pouring on Philippine rivers uncontrollably.
While developed
countries like the United States and Japan have been incorporating infrastructures
on waste water treatment into city planning, the Philippines has been taking
a piecemeal approach to this.
It is estimated that only three to seven percent
of households in Metro Manila have waste water connected to sewage treatment
plant (STP).
As the Clean Water Act (CWA) or Republic Act 9275 mandates the drafting
of the National Sewerage and Septage Management Program (NSSMP), the Local Water
Utilities Administration (LWUA) is tapping a World Bank aid on this plan.
The
CWA gave government agencies only 12 months to come up with this NSSMP. And it’s
almost five years since CWA was passed in 2 004, but the actual NSSMP drafting
has yet to start.
As the grand plan is still being awaited, an STP specialist,
Engr. Andrew T. Montalbo, Eco System Technologies Inc. chief operating officer,
said that integrating STPs into LGUs’ plans is a cost-effective option.
This can make this common, cost-shared facility cheaper for everybody.
“
We
should go for big centralized treatment plants in cities which will have a greater
regenerating impact on water flow on rivers and groundwater,” he said.
The CWA mandates the planning
of a sewerage (drainage facilities for rainwater and household water, in general)
and septage (septic tanks and sewage or human waste storage facilities) program
in a national aim to treat pollution-causing water before this is thrown off
to the environment.
Since concern for the environment is the least priority in the Philippines, pollution
has already caused a tremendous strain on the environment.
Around 55 to 60% of waste water in the country is estimated to come from households
while the rest comes from industries including agriculture.
On the industry side, the battle to control discharge of polluting water on rivers
may already be advancing even on a slow pace, according to Engr. Jacinto S. Orcullo,
Environmental Management Bureau (EMB)-National Capital Region (NCR) supervising
environmental management specialist.
NCR only covers eight towns
and cities Las Pinas, Paranaque, Valenzuela, Navotas, Malabon, San Juan, Mandaluyong,
and Makati.
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Of the 743 establishments
in NCR that are potentially contributing to water pollution, only 400
have discharge permits, a permit to throw to the environment treated
effluent (water discharge from known source). Of those that have discharge
permits, 144 are connected to the Manila Water Magallanes STP in Makati;
42 get their waste water treated at the Rockwell STP; and nine at a Greenfield
Development STP.
Other companies that do not have discharge permits may
have pending cases with the Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB) which
issues cease and desist order (CDO) on companies discharging non-compliant
water. In some cases, companies issued with CDO that do not want to invest
in treatment plants already shut down permanently.
But a serious concern
now is on other non-compliant establishments that discharge not more
than 30 cubic meters (cu.m.) per day like fast foods which have proliferated
in Metro Manila.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
is now resolving questions on whether to exempt these establishments
from the water effluent standard since previous regulations exempt them
from it. Because of this previous rule, DENR may still issue closure
orders on these small firms. But as soon as they’re able to put
up treatment
facilities, they can re-operate without having to pay penalties.
“It will
be useless to regulate the big ones if you don’t regulate those that discharge
less than 30 cubic meters per day,” said a DENR official. DENR is presently
amending department administrative orders 34 and 35 which include resolution
on this.
The government specifically monitors five major water quality aspects
of effluents (water discharge from known sources).
The first is the biochemical
oxygen demand (BOD), the amount of oxygen required for the decomposition of organic
matter from a pollution source which should be not more than 50 milligrams (MG)
per liter. The next is total suspended solids (TSS), measure of undissolved solid
particles in water such as silt, decaying plant and animal matter, and domestic
and industrial wastes. TSS should not be more than 70 MG per liter. The rest
are acidity which should be at 6.5 ph; color which should be at 150 units; and
oil and grease, not more than five MG per liter.
Amid efforts on regulating water
discharge in the Philippines, one glaring problem comes out prominently-- the
fragmentation of agencies regulating waste water in the Philippines.
While EMB-NCR
monitors eight towns, waste water from majority of the establishments in Metro
Manila and nearby regions is being monitored by the Laguna Lake Development Authority
(LLDA).
In the provinces, local government units (LGUs) are tasked to monitor
waste water from households while regional offices of the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources, particularly EMB, have jurisdiction over industries.
Under
section 8 of the CWA, LGUs and related agencies are mandated within five years
to “connect sewage lines to subdivisions, condominiums, commercial centers,
hotels, sports and recreational facilities, hospitals, market places, public
buildings, industrial complex… and households to available sewerage systems” so
that polluting water can be treated.
“Obviously, LGUs have not yet been
taking the law seriously,” said a DENR official.
The government also apparently
has to work out on a consolidated national report on compliance with effluent
standards of industries, even those from the provinces.
An EMB official said
that such national report may be available with the private sector-- the Pollution
Control Association of the Philippines or the Philippine Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (PCCI).
The absence of such monitoring report obviously makes regulation
of effluent discharge difficult. The enforcement of effluent standards in the
Philippines is faced with other difficult problems.
While certain condominiums
may be willing to put up treatment plants, some of these condominiums in Metro
Manila are located in cramped areas within narrow roads where there are barely
space to make way for treatment plants.
And with the numerous squatter communities
crowding Metro Manila, one can only tell how much water pollution all of these
are bringing.
“For squatters situated near rivers, we know where their
human waste is going. But what about squatters in landlocked areas, where do
you think do their feces go?” said a government official.
With a weak enforcement
of water quality laws, it is not surprising why coliform bacteria is contaminating
Metro Manila’s drinking water wells. And the Department of Health reports
that 12 Filipinos, mostly children, die each day from diarrhea.
Moreover, the
Philippines , courtesy of the Meycauayan-Marilao-Obando rivers, also gets the
notoriety of being on the Blacksmith Institute’s “World’s Most
Polluted Places.”
As of 2005, the Meycauayan River had a BOD of 119.9 MG
per liter, for above what is acceptable.
This happened as industrial waste from
tanneries, gold, and precious metals refineries, waste from lead recycling facilities
and other industries, and the rest of household waste are dumped in the rivers
without regard for existing laws.
It is unthinkable that these river systems
are a source of drinking water for 250,000 people in the area. Its pollution
is also a reason why nearby residents also complain of many health problems such
as respiratory illnesses and headaches.
The lack of compliance to the country’s
water standards has already left Pasig River incapable of growing aquatic resources
for food while Laguna Lake’s fishes like tilapia and dalag contain heavy
metals like mercury, arsenic, chromium, cadmium, and lead.  <<... |
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