THE MATHEMATICS OF SUPPLYING WATER

THE MATHEMATICS OF SUPPLYING WATER In an interview about how to provide more water to meet the growing national demand, one DPWH official said that they will look into deep well solutions. Either that official is out of tune or out of touch, but either way, it gives us an idea that many of our government officials do not really know what to do or what they are doing, probably because they are like square pegs in round holes. Maybe that DPWH official does not know that it is already illegal to draw water from deep wells in many parts of the country, and wherever that is still allowed, the water may already be contaminated, or may have already reached salinity levels that would make it already unfit for human consumption. Notwithstanding that DPWH official's apparent ignorance about the realities of the water problem, it appears that no one in the government is really looking at the projected demand for water in the future, as well as the projected supply, based on what are doable and attainable, depending on what could be the science based solutions that could be supported by public funding. No, I am not talking about rocket science, because the solution could simply be the combinations of rainwater collection, desalination, filtration and atmospheric water generation, the latter being the science of drawing water from the air. Filtration could mean processing dirty water to make it drinkable. While the science of desalination is already mature, there is still that challenge of energy costs being too high, such that the price of the water that will be produced by the process may be too high for the general public to be able to afford it. Hopefully, the technology of using solar panels could provide some solutions, because solar energy is cheaper than fossil fuel based energy. In theory, all rivers and lakes could be tapped for water filtration, and that is actually a more logical option, because filtration is always cheaper than desalination. However, if we do the math correctly as we must do, we will realize that there would be a need to clean up our rivers and lakes so that the water it carries would be enough to tap in volume, and potable enough in terms of quality, after going through the necessary processes. If that means dredging these rivers and lakes, then so be it, because it means our survival. IKE SENERES/07-07-2024