I am going to stress this. Water is the bedrock of life–around the universe...on this earth. Water is synonymous with life and we simply cannot live without it. What’s interesting about water is that the amount we have is constant. Meaning, that we cannot create an infinite amount of water. Using the principles of basic economics we can extrapolate a potential issue between the factors of demand and supply. Very quickly you can infer that there is an infinite(or infinitely-growing) demand as seen by the exponentially increasing global population, yet there is only a constant supply of water. The result?  2 billion people live where water is in short supply. That number will undoubtedly grow in the coming years. As such, I believe that Long-term water security is the key for our future generation–the human legacy as a whole. 

The issue with water availability is that the limited supply puts pressure onto densely populated areas. The fact is, water security is closely linked with other aspects of the environment: climate change, conflict, natural disasters. The Covid-19 pandemic also brought to light the importance of clean water as now washing hands is mandatory at the same time the wealth inequality puts a spotlight onto the disparity. These problems are global and are visible even where I live currently. 

Where I live in the Philippines and the underfunded communities I work with, access to clean water is cherished. Where buckets are used to transport water from a source, where 1 in 10 Filipinos do not have access to clean water. The densely populated city of Manila is showing signs of cracking. Aside from the Pandemic, the Philippines is known for its abundance in natural disasters with the common occurrence of El ninos(weather patterns associated with warm waters caused when the surface of the water warms) drying up key sources of water for Filipinos that could have been used to distribute clean water. Last year, the level of water was so scarce that the large majority of the metro manila area had to undergo strict regulations regarding what time they could use their showers to save what little amount of water was in storage. Here, everyone was affected: both the affluent and the underserved. What surprised me was the sheer magnitude it affected everyone, people were limited to a certain time slot. Though the effects of the water shortage touched everyone, the longer lasting repercussions undoubtedly remained skewed towards the lower income Filipino community. They were forced to shell out large sums of money and rely on governmental care packages in order to survive without constant access to clean water. Similarly, the floods in low lying villages their potable water is contaminated, when the weather is dry, water becomes even scarcer.

What the Philippines is doing:

Though the country is stretched thin, there are many ways in which the country is taking action, which other countries can also follow suit. The government has instituted a direct relief program aimed to provide a direct water supply for these communities by giving communal water pumps for safe and clean access to water. These efforts were aided by NGOs like the FLDP GeEx community foundation. It is said that these pumps, individually, will help 30 families. These pumps are the primary solution to water security in the Philippines. However, individually, we can reduce our own water supply, focused on limiting our shower times and choosing a diet that has low water usage.