Water Pollution In The Philippines w151d

WATER POLLUTION IN THE PHILIPPINES: CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS I. INTRODUCTION The Philippines or the Republic of the Philippines is a country comprised of 7,107 islands in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific. The country is surrounded by water: the Luzon Strait, the South China Sea, the Celebes Sea and the Philippine Sea. According to the United Nations, uncontrolled, rapid growth of population has contributed to extreme poverty, environmental degradation and pollution in the Philippines. The article I’ve read states that the major problem encountered by the Philippines now is the water pollution. The increased of population, urbanization, agriculture and industrialization have all reduced the quality of water in the Philippines. According to the article the government continues to try to clean up the problem, implementing fine to polluters as well as environment taxes, but the problem still not solved. There are different organization and people that tries to come up with different solution to help this problem. Just like the Greenpeace Philippines and the World Bank they’ve come up with different concepts that can help slowly resolving the problem. There are also group of nine Filipino artists that painted watercolor portraits with sterilized pigments from six polluted rivers in Manila. They made money by selling the portraits then the money they’ve collected goes to the organizations that help clean the rivers, thus reducing the water pollution in the Philippines.

II. ANALYZE According to the Water Environment Partnership in Asia (WEPA) increased population, urbanization, agriculture and industrialization have reduced the quality of water in the Philippines. The Greenpeace reports that the water pollution in the Philippines is mostly wastewater from the following resources: a. Industrial – the metal varies according to industry – lead, mercury, chromium, cium and cyanide. b. Agricultural – organic – decayed plants, dead animals, livestock manure, soil runoff and non-organic – pesticides and fertilizers. c. Domestic sewage – contains pathogens that threaten human health and life. d. Other sources – oil, mine or chemical spills and illegal dumping in or near water. According to WEPA, water pollution’s effects cost of the Philippines approximately $1.3 billion annually. The government continues to try to clean up the problem, implementing fine to polluters as well as environmental taxes, but many problems have not been address. According to government monitoring data, up to 58 percent of the groundwater tested was contaminated with coliform and approximately one third of illnesses monitored during a five-year period were caused by water-borne sources. But one of the most alarming things Greenpeace reports is that out of the Philippines’ 421 rivers many as 50 rivers are considered dead and unable to any but the most robust life. In addition to this, during the dry season, many areas experiences water shortages. And one river in the Philippines is on the list of the 10 most Polluted Rivers in the World – the Marilao River.

III.

ACTION TAKEN

Greenpeace has been working to develop a solution to water pollution in the Philippines. The organization s the Clean Production context in which the public has a right to know which toxins they are exposed to in their daily lives. The Pollutant Release and Transfer (PRTR) also deals with water quality and is a national or regional environmental database or inventory of potentially hazardous chemical substances and/or pollutants released to air, water and soil. It also contains information on materials that are transferred off-site for treatment or disposal. According to Greenpeace Philippines, the concept of Clean Production is “a new way of looking at production and consumption patterns.” The concept of producing consumer goods in this way entails: 1. The elimination of all hazardous chemicals at all stages of production and the seeking of safe, sustainable alternatives. 2. The reduction of waste generated. 3. The decreasing of the need for raw materials and energy. 4. The utilization of clean, renewable energy sources in the production process and design. IV.

SUGGESTED SOLUTION/RECOMMENDATION

If I were to give a solution or recommendation I would suggest the following: a. Each one of the member in the community should be responsible in disposing their garbage properly. b. A community or barangay should implement an ordinance to give punishment to those who are throwing their waste anywhere especially people near the rivers or sea. c. Implementation of waste segregation must be a must to all the people in a community or a barangay.

d. There should always be a clean-up drive in the rivers or seas near your community or barangay. e. Everyone should know how to recycle waste that can be recycle so that garbage can be lessen and the recycle materials can be of use. V. REFLECTION While I was making this case study I’ve realize that as generation es water pollution is becoming more and more danger to the world. The result to this seas and rivers are becoming dead and cannot be of help to human health and life. If we keep this up the world may die along the people living in it. As we all know the mass of water on Earth is much greater than the mass of the land. Water has an important role in our life, we can survive long enough with just water. It keeps us hydrated and fueled to do things in our daily life. We must help one another to prevent water resources from dying because if that happens we may die also. If we compare our lives from the lives in Africa we are grateful because we have water to drink. While, the people there fight hard to find to drink. Therefore, people should practice in keeping our environment clean especially the water resources. VI.

REFERENCE http://www.borgenmagazine.com/water-pollution-in-the-philippines/ http://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2013/04/08/philippines-manila-third-sewerageproject http://www.wepa-db.net/policies/state/philippines/overview.htm

A CASE STUDY IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

PRESENTED BY:

JUAN B. CANTIGA

PRESENTED TO:

MR. GERALD T. MALABARBAS