CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
Rationale

Imagine learning that the water coming from every faucet in your home—the

water you drink and use for bathing—contains contaminants like mercury and feces.

Now consider if your local government was aware of these risks but purposefully

withheld information about them until the majority of the people you knew and cared

about had developed illnesses. This hypothetical scenario is the current reality in the

Philippines. An eighth of the country’s rivers are considered too toxic for human and

animal ingestion or contact and are unable to support most forms of life. Moreover,

fewer than half of the total number of rivers in the Philippines have water safe enough

for consumption. In recent years, contaminants found in large and small bodies of water

contributed to one-third of the reported illnesses in the Philippines. More surprisingly,

the response by the Filipino government to combat this epidemic remains limited.

Water is a basic need for every human being, and it is generally provided by the

public sector in many developing countries. The governments in developing countries

have recognized the importance of improving the water service for the economic and

social well-being of the population and for environmental protection. (Asian Institute of

Technology, 2006)

Water pollution is a major problem in the Philippines. According to Water

Environment Partnership in Asia (WEPA), 32 percent of the Philippines’ land mass —

approximately 96,000 square kilometers — is used for agriculture. The primary crops

are palay (rice), corn, sugar cane, fruit, root crops, vegetables, and trees (for rubber).

Increased population, urbanization, agriculture, and industrialization have all reduced

the quality of water in the Philippines.

According to WEPA, water pollution’s effects cost the Philippines approximately

$1.3 billion annually. The government continues to try to clean up the problem,

implementing fines for polluters as well as environmental taxes, but many problems

have not been addressed. 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. In

addition to this, during the dry season, many areas experience water shortages.

The rivers in the capital city of Manila and in Cebu’s Mambaling River have

received some attention lately. For instance, the Marilao River which runs through the

Bulacan Province and into Manila Bay was on the 10 Most Polluted Rivers in the

World list. The river is contaminated with several kinds of heavy metals and chemicals

from tanneries, gold refineries, dumps, and textile factories. It is one of the 50 dead

rivers in the Philippines. (Marrone, 2016)

As time passes, the health of the Filipino people continues to suffer. Within a

five-year span, exposure to waterborne contaminants was the cause of approximately

one-third of illnesses in the Philippines. An abundance of waterborne viruses and

bacteria in drinking water leads to the contraction of afflictions such as diarrhea,

cholera, and various skin diseases. Aside from its impacts on public health, water

pollution also causes irreversible damage to the environment. Local economies are

severely impacted by water pollution, and the Filipino economy is no exception. When

citizens experience a decrease in hygiene due to the lack of clean water for bathing,

they become less productive. This is because bathing is a basic need that must be met

in order for an individual to focus proper amounts of energy and time on greater

responsibilities such as those at work, school, or at home.

The Philippines passed the Clean Water Act of 2004 to help prevent further

pollution of natural clean water sources. Through these reforms, the Filipino government

attempted to create a sense of accountability within the region by levying fines on

polluters. The severity of the fine is dependent on the type of pollutant found such as

organic, inorganic, and stock pollutants as well as the classification of the body of water

the pollution was found in, such as rivers, streams, and so forth. The Clean Water Act

leaves the responsibility of charging fines and executing water guidelines to the local

governments." However, private corporations may choose not to adopt water-conscious

practices despite consistently paying pollution fines. The accumulation of pollution fines

from lakes and rivers may equal a fraction of the cost of implementing proper water

treatment and disposal of water waste within a corporation. As long as the fines are less

expensive than the proper disposal of pollutants, corporations will choose to continue to

pollute. Global organizations have offered aid to the Philippines, but government

measures fail to prevent the continuation of water pollution. (Gabriella, 2018)