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Water crisis teaches Metro residents the value of every drop


Housewife Eva Reyes, 45, considers last week as one of the worst weeks of her life. It all started one Friday in mid-July, when the water coming from her tap started slowing to a trickle. The following day, not a single drop of water was coming out of her faucet. Thirsty and without taking a bath, she fell in line at a nearby deep well owned by her neighbor to buy water. With just her pails and a lot of patience, she went there in the morning and got her turn to fetch water late in the afternoon. "Ang dami kasing nawalan ng tubig kaya ang daming nakapila. 'Yung iba nga, may mga dala nang sasakyan tapos doon nilalagay ‘yung drum ng tubig," she said, referring to the thousands of residents in Barangay Batasan Hills in Quezon City who endured long queues just to get the precious resource. Eva finally managed to take a sponge bath later in the day, but it did little to relieve the irritation she felt due to the water cutoff, which would last for a week. "Ang hirap-hirap talaga kumilos. Kung may pupuntahan ka, makikipag-unahan ka pa para magamit ‘yung kakaunting tubig na meron ka," she recalled. "Twenty years na akong nakatira rito, pero ngayon ko lang naranasan mawalan ng tubig ng isang linggo. Nakakainis talaga noong simula. Hindi man lang kami naabisuhan," she told GMANews.TV in an interview last Saturday.

Residents queue with their empty containers to collect water from an open MWSS manhole in Brgy. Catmon, Malabon due to a water shortage. Mark Adrian
Some of her neighbors in Pook Luzviminda, a lower-middle class community where houses are made of light materials built close to each other, went as far as the adjacent Marikina City to fill up their empty water containers, she said. No water, no business, no school Eva is one of the three million Maynilad customers who were affected by service disruptions from the water provider last week due to record low levels in Angat Dam, where the country's capital gets most of its water supply. The below-critical water levels in the reservoir forced government officials to admit that there was a water crisis in Metro Manila. Ordinary water consumers were the first to feel the inconveniences caused by the prolonged dry season the past few months, even as the capital was facing the onset of the rainy season. Taxi driver Marlon Dominguez of Pook Kalinisan, another Maynilad customer, had to stop plying the streets for two days to help his family cope with the water crisis. Like Eva, Marlon had to fall in line for hours to try and get some water from Maynilad trucks that ration water to affected areas. Even though he had to forego sleep, however, he was not as lucky. "Pinapila kami noong gabi kasi darating nga raw ang Maynilad. Nag-abang kami mula gabi hanggang umaga, pero noong dumating naman, hindi na umabot 'yung tubig sa lugar namin. Sa may bandang taas kasi kami, kaya wala talaga kaming tubig," he said. The lack of water forced Marlon's two children to skip school for two days because they could not take a bath. "Ayaw nila pumasok, kasi nga naman, hindi sila nakakaligo," he said. To remedy the situation, Marlon resorted to fetching gallons of water from the office of his boss along nearby Commonwealth Avenue and buying drinking water even though prices had shot up from P35 to P55 per gallon. Having experienced such discomfort, Marlon was not surprised to see news television footage of people from nearby Pook Pag-asa, also in Barangay Batasan, fighting over a single hose of flowing water.
"Wala na ngang tubig kaya hindi nakakaligo. Syempre, mainit 'yun sa katawan. Tapos puyat pa kaya maiinit din ang mga ulo. Nagkakasingitan pa. Mag-aaway talaga 'yang mga 'yan," he said. The water riots had nearly forced the government to send troops to maintain peace and order in water rationing areas. Water supply has since improved in Barangay Batasan Hills and 343 other barangays affected by the disruptions, but Marlon said the crisis left him a lesson he had never given a thought in previous years. "Tipid-tipid na talaga dapat sa tubig. Iba na ang panahon ngayon. 'Yung akala mong tubig na marami sa paligid mo, nagkakaubusan na pala," he said. Every drop counts Desk officer Oscar Bautista, 42, of Barangay Batasan Hills also learned something positive out of the crisis their area experienced in the past week. "Ang hirap talaga ng walang tubig. Mawalan ka na ng kuryente, 'wag lang mawalan ng tubig. Dapat talaga nagtitipid na tayo, lalo na ngayong problema ang mahabang tag-araw," he said. To save water, Oscar now makes sure that all taps and hoses at the barangay hall are properly closed to prevent unnecessary spills. Marlon, meanwhile, said his family has taken to reusing bath water for other purposes. "Tuwing naliligo, naglalagay na kami ng palanggana para doon naiipon 'yung may sabon na tubig na gagamitin para pang-flush o kaya panlinis ng kubeta," he shared. Eva, for her part, said she does not let water flow freely whenever she washes the dishes these days. "Hindi na puwede 'yung tulo lang nang tulo 'yung tubig kapag naghuhugas ng pinggan. Iniipon na lang muna sa palanggana para walang maaksaya," she said. Her family has also been collecting rainwater in drum containers to make sure they have a ready supply. "Panlinis din kasi 'yun o kaya pandilig ng halaman," she says. Eva has promised herself that after the inconvenience of having no water for seven straight days, she would not allow shortages to happen again. "Hindi na dapat maulit ito. Kung dati kaya mong umubos ng dalawang timba ng tubig, ngayon dapat isa na lang. Hihintayin pa ba nating mawalan na lang ulit ng tubig para tayo matuto?" she said. – YA, GMANews.TV
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