Getting late in the day

How would Cebuanos react if they cannot source potable water even by desalinating Cebu’s surrounding seas because even the brine has become too polluted to be treated?

The possibility, both of having to desalinate water and finding this a closed option (consider the oil spill that affected the sea east of Cebu and the likelihood of such a disaster recurring), is not far off.

It is already hard to keep count of the number of years since we found out that Cebu’s water aquifers were over-pumped, that its major water sources like Guadalupe river are biologically dead.

Is it really so difficult for Cebuanos to rise to the challenge of keeping its water sources sustainable?

We wonder if water conservation techniques like reusing laundry water on plants has become routine in homes. That would be an important step, although giant ones need to be taken.

Architect Socorro Atega of Cebu Uniting for Sustainable Water yesterday sounded for the nth time since the organization was founded the wake-up call on the dearth of water in Cebu.

Will we all wait for the next big drought or El Niño phenomenon to hit us hard before we make a radical response to the dwindling of our water sources?

How hard is it to set up catchments to store rainwater in homes and non-residential areas?

It seems like epochs ago since Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal called for the installation of these vessels.

Yet nothing has been done save for the Cebu City Council’s passage of an almost forgotten and ineffectively implemented rainwater catchments ordinance: City Ordinance 2103 of 1998.

How complicated is the process of planting and monitoring the growth of trees to hold underground water? What is the state of our reforested lands?

Can we protect our underground freshwater supply at the rate we are leveling mountainsides to build roads leading to areas sold left and right to real estate developers?

Let us not look to the day when we can no longer slake our thirst or clean ourselves before we rush to look for ways to save our precious water and keep it clean.