Clean Water Sanitation

Along with the attempt to improve and modernize the society’s daily living on a global scale, it has triggered the occurrence of series of natural phenomena which threatens the most significant facets of life including the basic necessities. The endeavor of surmounting the standard pace of advancement has reached even the third world countries’ interest in parallelizing advancement with development while disregarding the possible repercussions (Cackler, 2008). Consequently, the developing nations have suffered from the changes and the Philippines is not an exemption. Being situated in the Pacific Ocean within the coverage of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines has been challenged with the emergence of shifts in the weather pattern like

However, in order to achieve the effectiveness of appropriate hygiene and sanitation practices essential to daily living, access to clean water must be considered. With insufficient quantities of uncontaminated water, it becomes difficult for even elementary hygiene to be properly practiced (World Health Organization, United Children’s Fund, 2000). Therefore, the aftermath of El Niño that is water supply shortage greatly imperils the lives of the people living in the affected areas.

Series of natural phenomena trigger hydrologic variability including the occurrence of the El Niño. While it causes drought or excessive floodings on the affected areas particularly the countries situated in the Pacific Ocean and South America, it threatens the general water security including the access to water supply and efficient water utilization especially for the developing nations. (World Bank Group,

PSA and UN Water Philippines have noted that the administration fails to properly emphasize or implement laws and policy frameworks addressing the water consumption needs of the country. Statistics from the PSA and UN also show the consideration of technology over water and sanitation, with more people having access to mobile phones than to clean sanitation and hygiene facilities. Overall, the literature provides a general background of the impacts of the El Niño to society and how it severely affects water security and utilization and points out society’s apparent nonintervention when it comes to dealing with the emerging water problems. However, it fails to address the necessary countermeasures that need to be undertaken in order to mitigate the effects of the occurrence of said