Ricochet - Rene E. Bartolo

Earth Week

‘The voice of Atty. (Ramon Edison) Batacan, as well as the voices who worked hard and long for the Water Code that the City Council members have held hostage inside their political pockets, is the proverbial “voice in the wilderness.”  Perhaps, these voices will be heard when Davao City becomes a wilderness.  Too bad and too late!’

THE PAST week, the world commemorated “Earth Week.”

The truth is, the week of conscience-pricking than a commemoration.  It was like looking at our moribund planet, reflecting on what human wantonness has done to endanger it and considering measures to forestall the tragedy that threatens the planet and the life on it.

Exactly a year ago today, I received a piece written by lawyer Ramon Edison Batacan, chair of Green Juris of the Ateneo Law School.  Ed Batacan was one of the more active members of the Water Code Task Force of the city.

Soon after I received the letter I reprinted it in my column.  Because the concerns he raised have not changed a year later; because we are faced by the burden of what we have not done for the past year — especially the legalistic beheading and the political execution of the proposed Water Code — I wish to share with the reader the article of Atty. Batacan which he calls “The Significance of Earth Day.”
 
 

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF EARTH DAY
by: Atty. Ramon Edison C. Batacan

ONE of the laws of ecology is that nature is not for free.  It is hardly replenishable.

It is a myth therefore to say that water is inexhaustible at no cost to mother earth.  We earthlings take water resources for granted.  Our wrong perception that water is everywhere and readily available contributes to our abusive tendencies.  By our unregulated, unreasonable, and uncontrolled use of our water resources, we will soon find ourselves wanting of water to drink.

Consider this fact: There is estimated about 326 million cubic miles of water available on earth but only about 0.0091% of it may be a possible source of potable water (located in fresh water sprints, lakes, and rivers).  To illustrate, if all of earth’s water will fit in a gallon jug, available fresh water would equal just over a tablespoonful.

Man is only one of the many consumers who need water for survival.  Experts say that in the year 2025, when our population in the Philippines will be estimated at 100 million, our per capita water capability will only be about 5,000 cubic meters down from about 14,000 in 1995 when our population was only 25 million.

With our growing population, deforestation, contamination of ground water, uncontrolled and unregulated extraction of underground water, it is foreseen in the near future that people will start fighting tooth and nail against one another to gain control of our water resources.

Unwittingly, by ignoring all efforts to conserve our water resources, we are allowing this scenario to happen.  We might not be around by that time but certainly, our next generation will execrate us in our graves for destroying the very basic human need for survival — WATER.

Let us not forget that water conservation is more than anybody’s concern.  It is a social reality.  It is the sharing in this responsibility that Earth Day will truly have its meaning.

(The author is a professor in Environmental Law at Ateneo de Davao University - College of Law and Davao City Consultant on Environmental Concerns.)

The voice of Atty. Batacan, as well as the voices who worked hard and long for the Water Code that the City Council members have held hostage inside their political pockets, is the proverbial “voice in the wilderness.”

Perhaps, these voices will be heard when Davao City becomes a wilderness.  Too bad and too late!