Sen. Edgardo J. Angara has warned that water shortage might soon strike in nine major places in the country, including Metro Manila.

Angara, chairman of the Congressional Commission of Science & Technology and Engineering, issued the warning during an international conference on climate change recently.

He said that the problem might strike in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Angeles, Baguio, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, and Zamboanga.

Angara said that a 2007 Asian Development Bank (ADB) study stated that rapid urbanization has contaminated surface and groundwater resources in the country, causing a looming shortage in drinking water.

He cited the ADB study which claimed that only about a third of the Philippine river systems can be used as suitable sources of clean water, and more than half or 58 percent of groundwater resources are now contaminated.

“The same study warns that unless we start cleaning up our act, river and groundwater systems will fail by 2025,” Angara, Agriculture secretary of former President Estrada said.

Angara said the ADB findings coincide with a separate United Nations study which predicts that by 2025 about 66 percent of the world population will experience moderate to severe water shortage.

He said the current drought “is just a manifestation of a bigger, silent crisis affecting the Philippines: A water crisis.”

There are many remedial measures, but Angara proposed rainwater harvesting, a practice started as early as 4,000 years ago at Negev Desert in Palestine, as a cost-efficient and effective means to solve water shortage and to recharge groundwater.

The harvesting can be done by saving rainwater through large jars, catchment basins or impounding ponds and canals, he said.

Angara pointed out that there is already a law, RA 6716, promoting the rainwater harvesting and authorizing the Department of Public Works and Highways to build water wells, springs and rainwater collectors in every barangay and to rehabilitate existing ones.

“The law was passed 20 years ago in 1989, but we have yet to see its implementation,” he said.

“Supposedly, the construction of rainwater collectors should have begun a month after RA 6716 was published, or around June of 1989.”

Angara also said that Metro Manila should be reengineered to survive climate change He also said that the redesign of Metro Manila can serve as blueprint for other places in the country also threatened by climate change.

He told the conference that its objective is “not just how to rebuild Metro Manila” but also “how to build cities that are sustainable, that will be livable, that will be environmentally friendly, and can cope with disasters that appear to be a regular feature of our daily existence.”

Angara said that the strong earthquakes have been frequent recently, like those that struck Haiti, Chile, Turkey, and Indonesia.

He also noted that Metro Manila and others like Laguna and Nueva Ecija came under water all at the same time from the incessant raining by typhoons Pepeng and Ondoy last October and September, respectively.

Scientists have stressed that climate change will cause extreme weather conditions, like stronger typhoons.