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THE
latest international study on the impact of poor
sanitation on economic life—primarily in terms of the
productivity loss—shows the Philippines incurring $1.4
billion in economic losses annually.
The
study by the World Bank (WB), which covered as well our
Southeast Asian neighbors Cambodia, Indonesia and
Vietnam, was released just days before the Philippine
observance of World Water Day on March 26.
It also
bolsters the recent admonitions by human-development
advocates in the Alternative Budget Initiative that no
high-level macroeconomic growth can compensate for a
tragic underspending on food and nutrition, water and
sanitation, education and health, which underpin the UN
Millennium Development Goals.
Although
the Philippines has committed, along with more than 180
UN member-countries, to fulfill the time-bound goals by
2015, recent progress reports by independent groups
indicate that it trails in certain key areas, not least
of which in terms of providing clean water and
sanitation.
Speaking
at the weekend, Environment Secretary Lito Atienza added
another crucial ingredient to meeting the goal, besides
using the budget for allocating enough resources for
safe-water systems and sewerage facilities: civic
involvement.
Every
Filipino, Mr. Atienza stressed, has a role to play in
ensuring sufficient clean and safe water today and for
the future generations. “The simple act of disposing
waste properly contributes immensely to a clean river,
which is a basic source of water supply for
communities,” Atienza said by way of example.
His
office cited studies showing 33 percent of water
pollution comes from domestic sources, the biggest
contributory factor, followed by agriculture-livestock,
29 percent; industry, 27 percent; and others, 11
percent. As a result, said agency data, about 18
Filipinos die each day from water- and
sanitation-related diseases.
The
human face behind these dire statistics was in the news
recently, with the outbreak of typhoid in Laguna,
Iloilo
and Samar. The Laguna outbreak, which downed hundreds in
a span of two weeks, was particularly problematic
because health authorities, though knowing it is
water-borne, nevertheless could not pinpoint the exact
source of contamination.
That’s
the local situation. From the WB report, one sees the
adage “misery loves company” at work: it estimated the
annual per capita losses to poor sanitation ranging from
$9.30 in Vietnam, to $16.80 in the Philippines, $28.60
in Indonesia to a high of $32.40 in Cambodia.
“Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines lose
an estimated $9 billion a year because of poor
sanitation [based on 2005 prices]. That is approximately
2 percent of their combined gross domestic product,
varying from 1.3 percent in the
Philippines
and Vietnam to 2.3 percent in Indonesia and 7.2 percent
in Cambodia,” the study said.
As
expected, the WB report said the biggest economic loss
is in health, at $1.01 billion a year; followed by
economic losses recorded in water services worth $323
million; tourism, $40.1 million; and other welfare,
$37.6 million.
Health
resources, the report stated, contribute most to the
overall losses of all four countries included in the
study. Poor sanitation, including hygiene, the report
stated, causes at least 180 million disease episodes and
100,000 premature deaths annually.
The
report gives a fairly detailed elaboration of how
stupidly scrimping on simple health facilities like
sanitary toilets can cause a chain reaction of economic
losses in the future—crucial food for thought for
planners who fret only on whether they have a balanced
budget at the end of the year.
“Poor
sanitation, through its important implications for child
nutritional status, is associated with higher rates of
acute lower respiratory infection and malaria, as well
as increased mortality from a range of childhood
diseases,” the report stated.
For
those who survive such dire situations or serious
diseases, think malnourished children, underweight
children or children doomed early in life to stunted
brain development and weak pulmonary systems, among
others.
Indirect
deaths attributed to poor sanitation are in excess of
50,000 a year, said the report, with the
Philippines
accounting for 14,500.
For a
country that prizes its people because the export of
labor—from the most high-skilled to the domestic
help—has shored up the economy for nearly four decades,
the serious, chronic health risks should be cause for
alarm.
Meanwhile, the report elaborates on the impact of poor
sanitation on water pollution, which makes safe
freshwater for households more costly (around 44 percent
of Philippines households have to treat their water
before drinking, which adds considerably to the cost),
and reduces the production of fish in rivers and lakes.
Ironically, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and
Vietnam all have abundant internal freshwater resources
per capita, but all suffer from significant freshwater
pollution from “human activities”—a euphemism for the
human waste released to water bodies, which generates
3.5 million tons of biological oxygen demand.
An
average 40 percent of solid waste is collected in the
Philippines, with some cities collecting as much as 70
percent. What’s the economic loss here? Solid waste
prevents countries from maximizing their land areas.
Recently, Metro Manila’s disposal sites again became an
issue in the battle over a landfill in Rodriguez, Rizal.
It gets
worse: the sanitation-attributed annual economic losses
and potential gains in the local tourism industry is
$40.1 million.
Seeing
all these, one concludes then that Secretary Atienza was
making an understatement in saying, “We cannot survive
without clean water.”
He then
lists the threats to the effort to conserve precious
water resources: the overextraction of groundwater; the
pollution of rivers, seas and lakes from the dumping of
domestic and industrial waste; and the dwindling supply
of surface water due to the overexploitation of forest
resources.
It’s all
one inextricably linked chain of greed, apathy and
wooden-headedness. The result: “We have several rivers,
lakes and other bodies of water which used to teem with
fishes and other forms of aquatic life. These lakes and
rivers are now devoid of any form of life. They have
become biologically dead due to improper disposal of
wastewater and solid wastes,” says the Environment
chief.
Still,
he offers hope by saying some things can still be done,
and are in fact being done; for instance, to reverse the
degradation of Laguna and Taal Lakes, dismantling the
fish pens and fish cages which choke the free flow of
water in these vital bodies of water.
These
are all viable options, but they demand urgency and
political will. And they cannot be taken in isolation
from the other measures, like public education and
adequate spending for water and sanitation facilities.
Let’s hope all concerned have their eyes on the ball
here. |
