Laguna, 20 July 2009. If Filipinos find themselves very short of food in the near future, blame it on water shortage.
“Water for agriculture is critical for food security,” says Dr. Mark W. Rosegrant, a senior research fellow at the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
“The link between water and food is strong,” points out Lester Brown, president of Earth Policy Institute, also based in Washington DC. “We drink, in one form or another, nearly 4 liters of water per day. But the food we consume each day requires at least 2,000 liters to produce, 500 times as much.”
In the Philippines, agriculture has the highest demand of all water use with 85% while the other sectors – industry and domestic – have a combined demand of only 15%. “With the demand for water growing in all three categories, competition among sectors is intensifying, with agriculture almost always losing,” says Brown.
Today, an estimated 40% of agricultural products and 60% of the world’s grain are grown on irrigated land. “Agriculture is by far the biggest consumer of water worldwide,” says the Laguna-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
Water for fish
Within the agricultural sector, crop production receives the greatest attention, but fish and livestock also require water.
“Animals (including fish) consume a relatively small volume of water in comparison to crop consumption and can produce a very high value of output,” says Dr. Ruth Meinzen-Dick, a development sociologist whose expertise is water management. “As worldwide demand for animal products increases, the importance of supplying water for aquaculture and livestock is also likely to increase.”
Water covers over 70% of the earth's surface and is a major force in controlling the climate by storing vast quantities of heat. About 97.5% of all water is found in the ocean and only the remaining 2.5% is fresh water. Unfortunately, 99.7% of that fresh water is unavailable, trapped in glaciers, ice sheets, and mountainous areas.
Water is drawn in two fundamental ways: from wells, tapping underground sources of water called aquifers; or from surface flows - that is, from lakes, rivers, and man-made reservoirs. Groundwater is recharged by rain and seepage from rivers.
“Water is the most precious asset on Earth,” says Dr. Sandra Postel, director of the Massachusetts-based Global Water Policy Project. “It is the basis of life.” Ideally, a person should have at least 50 liters of water each day to meet basic needs – for drinking, food preparation, cooking and cleaning up, washing and personal hygiene, laundry and house cleaning.
Population link
In Asia, around 1,444 cubic kilometers of freshwater is withdrawn annually for human use. “That is equivalent to about 500 cubic meters per person per year,” explains Thierry Facon, senior water management officer of the regional office of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Bangkok, Thailand.
Among Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines ranks second from the lowest in terms of per capita water availability per year with only 1,907 cubic meters, according to a recent report released by the World Bank. The country is now home to more than 80 million people.
“Water resources and population are closely connected,” argues Don Hinrichsen, an environmental journalist who has done studies on water crisis for Johns Hopkins University and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
“The rapid urbanization of the Philippines, with more than 2 million being added to the urban population annually, is having a major impact on water resources,” notes the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its recently-released, Asian Water Development Outlook 2007.
In Metro Manila, residents often complain of lack of water during the summer months. In some parts of the metropolis, water supply situation reaches a vulnerable state that the little amount water some residents get is not enough even for emergency purposes like cooking and drinking.
Reaching the limits
“Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century and an increasing number of countries are reaching the limit at which reliable water services can be delivered,” Facon notes.
Several factors contribute to water shortage, including variability in climate, demographic patterns, and unsustainable water-use patterns. In some urban centers of the Philippines where water is available, 50% never reaches the designated consumers due to leakage, theft and poor management. These identified problems are compounded by the degradation of water resource base.
For instance, many of the country's largest cities are located in watersheds (also called catchment areas or drainage basin) where all available water is being used. "Land use and vegetative cover in the watershed are very important because they affect water flow and water quality," explains Patrick Durst, senior forestry officer of FAO’s regional office in Bangkok.
Forests help
One indicator of a good watershed is a healthy forest. “This is because forests can help to relegate the flow of water,” explains Durst. A recent report released by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said that 90% of the 99 watershed areas in the country are “hydrologically critical” due to their degraded physical condition as a result of loss of forest cover.
“One of the most formidable environmental challenges the Philippines faces today is its diminishing forest cover,” the World Bank report claims. “Of the country's total forestland area of 15.88 million hectares, only 5.4 million hectares are covered with forests and fewer than a million hectares of these are left with old growth forests.”
River pollution also contributes to the country’s current water woes. The ADB report said that 16 rivers are now considered “biologically dead” during dry months. Some 48% of water pollution come from domestic waste, 37% from agricultural waste, and 15 % from industrial waste.
Human future
In the rural areas, the major source of water pollution comes from farms. These are in the forms of organic wastes (such as decayed plants, livestock manure, and dead animals), soil loss (suspended soils and erosion), and pesticides and fertilizer residues.
“When water is polluted, fish and other aquatic resources can perish, which leads to a decline in fisheries production,” the World Bank report states. The Philippine economy loses an average of P17 billion annually due to the degradation of fisheries environment.
Meanwhile, Dr. Postel believes water problems will be alongside climate change as a threat to the human future, and global warming will worsen water problems. “Although the two are related, water has no substitutes,” she explains. “We can transition away from coal and oil to solar, wind and other renewable energy sources. But there is no transitioning away from water to something else.”