WATER VERSUS ELECTRICITY

If given a choice between water and electricity, what would you rather have? Someone asked me that question recently, and I choose water, arguing that I could live without electricity, but not without water. I was contented with my answer, but I was bothered by the fact that many Filipino families could not make the choice I made, because they neither have water nor electricity. Having access to water is actually a measure of poverty. In the new measure of poverty called the “Multidimensional Poverty Index” (MPI), everything is measured according to a household’s access to basic goods and services, instead of simply measuring whether a household could afford the imaginary basket of goods or not. But who is keeping track as to how many households have access to clean potable water and how many do not? The fact is, only the lower-class drink from tap water, and only the middle and the upper classes drink bottled water, because they are the only ones who could afford it. Again, who is keeping track? Should it be the LGUs? Should the water concessionaires and the water districts be also tasked with data gathering? If no one is keeping track, where are we getting the data to report as compliance to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? We are only six years away from the deadline, and we should really know where we stand. I hope that our data is accurate. IKE SENERES/12-31-2023