{"id":1367,"date":"2007-10-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-07T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/master.k8s.p4.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/press\/1367\/greenpeace-launches-project-clean-water\/"},"modified":"2019-11-06T17:05:19","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T09:05:19","slug":"greenpeace-launches-project-clean-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/story\/1367\/greenpeace-launches-project-clean-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenpeace launches \u2018Project: Clean Water\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Says water laws insufficient to assure clean water availability and access<\/h2>\n
Citing the urgent need to safeguard the country\u2019s precious fresh water resources from contamination, Greenpeace today launched \u2018Project: Clean Water,\u2019 an initiative that aims to catalyze action to protect Philippine fresh water sources.<\/div>\n
\n
\n

\n\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nYoung boys pick up empty plastic bottles floating on a river in Bacoor, Cavite, south of Manila, as a way to earn a living. Many rivers in Luzon are considered biologically dead because of industrial and municipal pollution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

\n\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nIs our water safe? Greenpeace campaigner Beau Baconguis pours \u2018contaminated water\u2019 into a drinking glass as a demonstration of how the availability and access to clean water and drinking water sources are threatened by toxic pollution. Greenpeace today launched \u2018Project: Clean Water,\u2019 an initiative that aims to catalyze action to protect Philippine fresh water sources.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The launch coincided with the release of the report \u201cThe state
\nof water in the Philippines,\u201d a comprehensive survey of available
\ninformation regarding water resources in the Philippines, focusing
\non the issues of pollution, especially of drinking water and
\nfreshwater sources, and water scarcity.\u00a0 It also reviews the
\ncountry\u2019s existing legal and policy frameworks for water use,
\nquality control, and management.<\/p>\n

Based on the said research, Greenpeace cited that:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0the quality of fresh water sources is steadily declining
\nwhile the costs of obtaining clean water is rising;<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0although many laws have been enacted to protect water,
\nsuch as the Clean Water Act, these are among the most blatantly
\nabused environmental laws because of poor enforcement; and<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0although government agencies monitor water quality, the
\nparameters are severely limited and do not include many toxic
\nsubstances from new technologies, including some of the most
\nharmful compounds known to humans, such as persistent organic
\npollutants or POPs; and<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0declining water quality is compounded by the problem of
\nwater scarcity which is now a very palpable threat, making access
\nto clean water more and more difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater is a renewable resource but it is not an inexhaustible
\nresource. What our research presents is just a bird\u2019s eye view of
\nbigger problems to come if we don\u2019t take serious steps to protect
\nour fresh water sources,\u201d said project lead Greenpeace Southeast
\nAsia Toxics campaigner Beau Baconguis.<\/p>\n

The Philippines has an abundance of fresh water resources but
\nranks second lowest among Southeast Asian countries with fresh
\nwater availability. Experts have also predicted that by year 2025,
\nwater availability deficit would take place in several river basins
\nsuch as in Pampanga and Agno, in Pasig-Laguna, in Cagayan Valley,
\nall other regions in Luzon, in Jalaur and Ilog Hilabangan, and in
\nthe island of Cebu in Visayas(1). Water pollution, climate change,
\nand inadequate management of water resources are expected to
\naggravate the problem of clean water availability and access.<\/p>\n

Confronting water pollution, Greenpeace says, is of primary
\nimportance. Despite government laws and initiatives, there has been
\nno substantial improvement, but rather a continuous decline in the
\nquality of clean water sources. Early this year, the Department of
\nEnvironment and Natural Resources (DENR) acknowledged that as many
\nas 50 of the 421 rivers in the country can be considered
\n\u201cbiologically dead\u201d due to pollution. And although the government
\nagency, through its Environmental Monitoring Board (EMB), regularly
\nmonitors pollutants in identified water bodies, they miss out on
\nthe most toxic compounds. A Greenpeace study released last February
\nmonitored Tetracholorethylene (TCE) in groundwater sources near the
\nCavite Export Processing Zone at 70 times above the US
\nenvironmental limit. The EMB admitted that they have no capacity to
\ntest for the said carcinogenic chemical and do not do so. The same
\nchemical was also found in groundwater sources in Las Pinas City a
\nmonth later as tested by an electronics company.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother problem with the existing laws, aside from the fact
\nthat they cannot be enforced, is the fixation on standards. The law
\ndoes not put a stop to the presence of toxic chemicals in the
\nwater, but assigns limits, or \u2018standards\u2019 about how much of these
\nchemicals can be tolerated in the water. This leads to a legalized
\nsort of pollution, because the \u2018allowable standards\u2019 for example of
\nlead or mercury in the water, build up in the environment and can
\nstill end up in our food, or in our water,\u201d said Baconguis.
\n\u201cClearly, what is needed is a system that goes beyond standards,
\nand focuses on prevention\u2013cleaning up production processes on the
\nfront end\u2013rather than contain, disguise, or dilute whatever toxic
\neffluents end up in our water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cClean water is a right for all. It is time that serious
\nsolutions are enforced,\u201d said Baconguis.<\/p>\n

As part of the \u2018Project: Clean Water\u2019 launch, Greenpeace is
\nholding a photo exhibit on fresh water, in Robinson\u2019s Galleria from
\n10 to 17 October, as well as various activities in the next few
\nweeks.<\/p>\n

[1] Philippine Environment Monitor 2003<\/p>\n

Know more!<\/h3>\n

Know more about the state of water in the Philippines.<\/a><\/p>\n

Support Us!<\/h3>\n

Our vision of a better future is only as strong as the people who support us. Join Greenpeace today and add your voice to the movement that\u2019s committed to defending our planet. Your support will make all the difference.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n\tCiting the urgent need to safeguard the country\u2019s precious fresh water resources from contamination, Greenpeace today launched \u2018Project: Clean Water,\u2019 an initiative that aims to catalyze action to protect Philippine fresh water sources.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":1368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17],"p4-page-type":[16],"class_list":["post-1367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability","tag-pollution","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1367"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2560,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367\/revisions\/2560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1367"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=1367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}