YOU’VE heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge, a fundraiser currently associated with generating awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, and resource support for ALS research.
Currently the rave on social media sites, the mechanics of the challenge entail filming a “dumpee” as a bucket of ice-cold water is dumped on his/her head. The dumpee donates to a charity (US$100 has been mentioned as the de rigueur amount) and chooses up to four other people to take the challenge. Should the nominees refuse to take the challenge within 24 hours, they are to pay a higher amount.
An estimated 1.2 million people, a number of them considered as celebrities, have signed up for and done the challenge. The list of celebrities who have done so is long—from David Beckham, Ben Affleck and Rhianna to, as reported by Tyrone Velez in Bulatlat.com, our very own Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Commissioner Kim Henares of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, former Ilocos Sur Governor Chavit Singson, and even Davao City vice-mayor Paolo Duterte.
These are all very well for increasing understanding about ALS and funding for research. However, there are those who have raised concerns about the environmental implications of freezing and then dumping an estimated six million gallons of water (assuming five gallons per dumpee).
Velez’s report cited the concerns of local environmentalist Sister Noemi Degala of the Sisters’ Association in Mindanao (Samin) and Mary Ann Fuertes of the Interface Development Interventions (Idis) on the messages the Ice Bucket Challenge campaign is inadvertently sending: wastage of freshwater in areas that have more access, in light of water scarcity in many areas around the world.
In response, there are those who point out that it is not as if the non-use of water in the Ice Bucket Challenge would redound to better water access in areas that have poor supply, as if by a miracle. But that just sounds like the cheeky response of many of us who do not want to finish the food on our plate after we have been reminded that many people go to bed hungry each night.
Still, the tit for tat about the Ice Bucket Challenge and its implications positive and negative alike present opportunities for further highlighting stark realities about freshwater: that humans need it to survive; that in areas where it is readily available we take it for granted that it would come running at the turn of a faucet; that, bringing the discussion closer to home, many areas in the Bangsamoro do not have adequate access to safe potable water, which is compounding situations of poverty and underdevelopment; and that it can be a driver of violent conflicts.
From a developmental perspective, freshwater refers not just to affordable access to sufficient safe/potable water; it cannot be separated from concerns about sanitation and hygiene, hence WaSH. In a WaSH thematic plan prepared by the A Single Drop for Safe Water (ASDSW) for the Bangsamoro Development Plan with the support of UNICEF, sanitation was defined as “using facilities/systems that allow the safe and dignified disposal of human waste, thus preventing contact or ingestion by humans” and hygiene as “practices conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease through cleanliness”. The promotion of public health and the reduction of health risks entail addressing all three components of water, sanitation and hygiene--beyond hardware and infrastructure improvements, and even going into behavior change.
In developing countries the standard for average water consumption is at 40 liters per person per day, except in emergency situations where the standard is at 15 liters/person/day. Ideally, water sources should be no more than 250 meters away for Level I (point source) or 25 meters for Level II (communal sources like barangay tap stands). Sanitation facilities should be accessible, being no further than 25 meters, and should prevent vectors like flies from coming in contact with human waste. These are to ensure that biological contaminants like E.coli do not pollute water sources--the standard is zero E. coli per 100 ml of water.
According to the Bangsamoro Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) Plan document, if these standards are to be applied in Armm, household access to safe drinking water was at 72 percent in 2012 (DOH-Armm FHSIS) against the overall figure of 80 percent of Philippine households with access in 2008 (NWRB). Only 34% of Armm households in 2012 had sanitary toilets against the national figure of 86% of households with access to sanitation.
In many Armm communities it is not unusual to see children bring gallons of water to school. For one, there are some schools where sanitation facilities exist but are not connected to water sources; hence students have to bring their own water for washing. For another, a number of students live in homes that are far from water sources, and part of the chores of these children and youth are to bring home potable water to their families, often walking considerable distance.
Poor access to WaSH is viewed as both a manifestation and a driver of poverty. Armm areas, which are at the core of the Bangsamoro territory, have consistently been listed as the poorest provinces in the country. They are also among those with the lowest access to water and sanitation services, thus spotlighting the linkage between WaSH situation and poverty. Efforts of poor families to self-provision for WASH only add to their daily financial burdens—already impoverished households end up paying unregulated fees for unguaranteed water.
The Armm Regional Development Plan Mid-Term Update (2014 to 2016) prepared by the Armm Regional Government cited challenges that have bearings on WaSH: increasing poverty incidence, inadequate delivery of social services in hard to reach areas, environmental degradation and vulnerability to climate change.
WaSH also has a conflict dimension. Community conflicts, some in the form of rido, have erupted in the Autonomous Region, as results of competition over WaSH resources. The 2005 Philippine Human Development Report (PHDR) also identified disparity in access to water supply as among the measures of deprivation and frustration—disparities in access to reliable water supply, electricity, and education—that can be used to predict the occurrence of armed encounters. The PHDR posits that communities that have poor access to water are, generally speaking, highly vulnerable to armed conflicts.
Going back to the Ice Bucket Challenge, why indeed do it or even take notice of it? I think there is merit to generating attention, action and commitment to the different challenges to wellbeing that humans around the world face; and in a world where multiple stimulants hit us every second, every little bit of creativity helps.
From this vantage point, the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge lies in its ability to focus attention on the problem and generating concern for it, rather than the event and its participants hogging the limelight. If at the end of a specific episode of the Ice Bucket Challenge a dumpee and the audience neither have new/better understanding of ALS, nor interest in what it takes to address it, then imagine the massive amount of wasted energy, and all that water gone down the drain.
More next week.
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