Water pollution, a grim reality?
Today’s celebration of World Water Day with the
theme “Coping with water scarcity” is a reminder of the need to
conserve and protect the world’s fresh water sources, if we are to
avert an impending crisis concerning humankind’s most valuable
resource.
Water sustains life. The extremely
rich biodiversity of Southeast Asia is a testament to the abundance of
freshwater systems and high rainfallthat support life. The Mekong River
of Mainland Southeast Asia, Chao Phraya of Thailand, and the other
rivers and lakes of the region are important sources of food, water for
various uses, medicines, energy, minerals, etc. More importantly, these
surface waters as well as the underground aquifers provide communities
with drinking water.
Unfortunately, the development path
that countries in Southeast Asia have taken is one that is highly
disruptive to the hydrological cycles. Aquifers, which store precious
ground water, have lost their water-holding capacities due to massive
deforestation such as those experienced in Indonesia and the
Philippines. Over-exploitation of water sources for industrial and
domestic purposes has contributed to the rapid depletion of already
limited freshwater resources. These disruptions have severely
compromised the ability of the forests to “catch” and then “shed” the
water into streams, rivers and reservoirs, as well as the capacity of
aquifers to recharge.
Data from the World Bank shows global
per capita renewable freshwater resource of 7,045 cubic meters per
year. Within Southeast Asia, there is a wide disparity among countries.
Lao PDR and Malaysia have the highest per capita renewable freshwater
resource per year at 35,049 cubic meters and 26,074 cubic meters,
respectively. Thailand and the Philippines are among the lowest with
1,907 and 1,854 cubic meters, respectively. Meanwhile, Singapore has no
renewable freshwater resource and is importing its water to meet its
demands.
Thus, water scarcity is an issue that communities
and governments must face and address in the next few years. Some
quarters speculate that the next world war will be fought over water.
Hostilities are starting to erupt not only in water-starved regions in
the world but also in areas where abundant freshwater sources have
conflicting uses such as in the Mekong River. At a smaller scale,
communities are now battling companies for rights and access to
drinking water.
But an equally alarming reality is that water quality has been steadily
declining through the years. Siltation from deforestation, mining and
other land conversion activities, saltwater intrusion from
over-extraction of water from underground aquifers, biological
pollution from untreated sewage, chemical pollution from industrial and
agricultural sources, as well as indiscriminate dumping of garbage on
water bodies, have all contributed to degrading water quality.
Pollution has made already scarce water resources even scarcer.
According to the Asian Development Bank, one out of three Asians still
do not have access to a sustainable source of safe drinking water and
50% still do not have sanitation services.
With dirty, polluted water come increasing cases of water borne
diseases as well as other sickness caused by chemical pollution. In
1992, the World Health Organization pegged the number of infant deaths
per year from exposure to contaminated waters at 500,000 in Southeast
Asia, while a study in 1997 by the ADB identified lead from industrial
sources as the major contaminant in water sources.
While
there have been many efforts to clean up dirty bodies of water and
waterways, and many governments have made attempts to enforce water
standards (such as the Philippines’ Clean Water Act, or Thailand’s
Pollution Control Act), these can be at best only interim measures.
If
we are to protect our valuable water resources, changes have to be made
in the way we see and treat our environment. The real solutions to
protecting water quality must begin at the sources of pollution. One
such effective and lasting measure is the implementation of clean
production processes. By eliminating the use of toxics from the very
first steps of production, pollution of water sources can be
effectively prevented.
Our constant exposure to polluted
fresh water sources—clogged, or foul smelling river and lakes, as well
as contaminated groundwater—have made water pollution a given, a
reality we have learned to accept. Thus, we focus on technology meant
to ‘clean up’ pollution rather than prevent it, and draft laws that
merely regulate the extent of toxicity in water, rather than prohibit
it completely.
We must learn to
unlearn this ‘reality.’ Clean water is the given we must protect if we
are to ensure that our water will continue to sustain life well into
the future.
