Wednesday, August 27, 2008 Covington: Water and woes By Gary Covington Looking In
WATER is in the news again -- DCWD pointing out that Davao's water tables (the depth at which water may be found underground) are falling faster than nature can replenish them. That we people are sucking the land dry.
Water was in the news April last as well -- the Great Loan Debate -- and, at the time, I suggested that as Davao's faucet water is so ridiculously cheap couldn't the necessary cash be raised simply by increasing the price?
No answer obviously but now, a few months on, here's another reason to up water prices. Force the public to use water sensibly by introducing a tiered system of rates. The lowest for the ordinary domestic user, the highest -- really, really high -- for non-essential users such as car washes.
The water problem won't go away. As our population explodes exponentially every decade (and nothing's being done about that either) there'll be less and less water to go around.
Action must be taken now, not endless debate and resolutions and committees, to force the sensible use of a finite resource. Educate the public to save and utilize rainwater. Re-afforestation on a grand scale. Forests attract rainfall, trap water and why isn't there a responsible national (or local) forestry authority? Raised water prices compelling Juan dela Cruz to fix that leaky faucet.
Continuing the Save the World theme and the message that plastic bags are throttling Davao (and the globe) is not getting through, is it? This morning, at a local grocery, I bought five items and, naturally, this bag being slipped into this one and so on, I ended up with five plastic bags.
I know, where was my SM Mall greenie shopping bag? Ah, tales to tell.
I can use my greenie bag at SM and the local mall where the grocery staff are used to me. Elsewhere there be problems. Security guards may refuse to allow my empty and folded flat bag into the store.
Leave your bag at the baggage counter, sir. Which is absurd. And sexist. You girls get to tote into the store handbags the size of duffels containing God knows what. The guys? Baggage counter sir. The grocery store lookouts at Gaisano Bajada are good at this. I've taken to stuffing the empty greenie bag up the back of my shirt and then sidling past the guard keeping front-on to the man at all times.
That's going in. Exiting, the checkout, can be another obstacle. Again, SM and my local place are no hassle; the staff recognizes a shopping bag and its purpose, to contain and transport shopping. Other grocery checkouts? Woe, woe, woe.
Simply tossing the empty bag to the checkout bagger-boy is no good. He'll assume it's a purchase, pack it neatly into a plastic bag ready to join all the other individually wrapped groceries in an even bigger plastic bag.
So I open the greenie. Plunk it down right in front of the bagger, the top gaping open, and then my attention will be claimed by the cashier demanding twenty-five centavos or a couple of pesos and meanwhile the bagger-boy is, well, you know what he's doing and it's not chucking my groceries into the shopping bag. Woe, woe, woe.
