15 MARCH 2019

Elmer N. Manuel, Editor
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
Looking
at long term
Children pump water from a communal deep well. These are one of the short-term solutions
of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System to help ease the water shortage
problem in Metro Manila.
AFP
Metro Manila is now facing a huge
problem in water supply — an unseen but
not improbable situation that put tens
of thousands Filipinos raging over the
insufficient supply of one of the major
resources in the country.
The metro has seen a shortage of water
as the levels of the La Mesa Dam breached
its critical level of 69 meters, dropping to
68.93 meters over the week which left
residents of Metro Manila and parts of
Rizal affected by water supply interruptions
since 7 March.
With this, we have seen the insufficient
supply resulting to Manila Water
implementing water service interruptions
in several areas to save more water for the
coming months.
What the metropolis needs is a
long-term solution that can avoid
these water supply shortages
which was actually proposed in
the past administration but was
never approved.
To augment the water supply crisis, the
Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage
System (MWSS) devised a plan that will
cover half of the deficit in Manila Water
Co.’s supply — that is, to provide deep wells
throughout the metro.
MWSS administrator Reynaldo Velasco,
in an interview, said they already identified
sources that can help ease the current water
problem faced by Manila Water, adding that
it can deliver at least 100 million liters of
water per day (mld).
Maynilad, on the other hand, will also
share 50 mld to Manila Water. All in all,
water from deep wells and Maynilad will
amount to 150 mld for Manila Water. The
other 50 mld which will complete the 200
mld needed will come from the treatment
plant of Manila Water in Cardona, Rizal
which they projected to open this March.
The activation of deep wells and sharing
of water supply by Maynilad, the opening
of the Cardona treatment plant may help
solve the water crisis in the metro, but the
way we see it, it’s only a short-term solution
to a problem that can possibly recur in the
not so distant future.
What the metropolis needs — and
the whole country for that matter — is
a long-term solution that can avoid these
water supply shortages which was actually
proposed in the past administration but was
never approved.
And recently, we have seen that pertinent
proposal which may address the problem
on shortages.
In an exclusive interview with the
Daily Tribune recently, Meralco PowerGen
president and chief executive officer Rogelio
Singson revealed that addressing the
problem on water shortage may be done
if focus will be on climate change.
Singson said that the solution for
the unpredictable weather cycle is in
impounding water — saving water during
severe rains and then release it during the
dry season, which can definitely augment
any impending water shortages.
“The solution is a water impounding
system — an ordinance that says
all subdivisions, major commercial
establishments should be prohibited from
spilling their water into drainages. They
should have their own impounding system,”
said Singson, who was once the secretary
of the Department of Public Works and
Highways.
“That’s what we did in Fort
Bonifacio. Burgos Circle
impounds and regulates the
water and this is released
based on the capacity
of the water creek. The
water is absorbed during
rains preventing EDSA
and Kalayaan from being
flooded. So, now there are
no complaints,” Singson
added.
We couldn’t
agree more. What
the country really
needs to look for
now are long-term
solutions that will
provide better
services to the
Filipino people.
Singson’s
proposal may be
worth a shot, and
it can’t hurt if the government will take a
second look at it.
GLOBAL GOALS
Women activists urge focus on services
A wheelchair-bound Pakistani mother
who yearned to visit a park without worrying
about ramp access and a young South
Sudanese woman who dreams of having
affordable health care were among the
speakers opening the United Nation’s (UN)
largest annual gathering on gender equality
and women’s rights.
Addressing the 63rd session of the UN
Commission on the Status of Women in a
joint speech, Muniba Mazari and Mary Fatiya,
both asked for basic social protections to
be extended to women and girls around the
world, based on need and in line with their
inalienable human rights.
“Being a woman has its challenges. Being
in a wheelchair is the cherry on top,” Mazari,
who is also the Goodwill Ambassador for UN
Pakistan, told several thousand activists,
diplomats, and academics gathered in the
UN’s General Assembly Hall.
Fatiya, who described going long
distances to a school where only two toilets
were available for around 600 children, said
her ideal world centered around a peace
existence, access to healthcare and good
infrastructure: “I’m not asking for a luxurious
A new United Nations-led plan has been unveiled to tackle the
estimated one billion cases of influenza which occur each year, and
protect against the “real” threat of a global pandemic, the head of
the organization’s health agency said.
Announcing the revised Global Influenza Strategy
for 2019-2030, World Health Organization
(WHO) Director General Dr Tedros
Ghebreyesus, warned that the
“question is not if we will have
another pandemic, but when.”
“The threat of pandemic
influenza is ever-present,” he said,
noting that the risk of a new influenza
virus transmitting from animals to humans
and potentially leading to a pandemic is “real.”
Influenza remains one of the world’s
greatest public health challenges, according
to the WHO, which says that the viral
respiratory disease is responsible for
between 290,000 and 650,000
related deaths a year.
Globalization,
urbanization and
mobility will
Education still migrants’ ‘impossible dream’
The older refugee and migrant children
get the less likely it is that they will get a
quality education: Less than a quarter of
the world’s refugees make it to secondary
school, and just one percent progress to higher
education. Even for migrants who settle in
wealthy, developed host countries, accessing
university is an uphill struggle.
For many young migrants in the UK, even
those who have the legal right to remain in a
new country, the idea of going to university is
almost an impossible dream: not only are they
are charged “overseas student” fees, which can
be around double those of “home” students but,
until recently, they were denied access to student
loans, which puts up another barrier to entry.
However, a ray of hope has been provided
by Chrisann Jarrett, who is herself a young
migrant (she was born in Jamaica and
moved to the UK at the age of 8). While still
a teenager, Chrisann set up Let Us Learn,
a campaign for equal and fair treatment for
young migrants. In an interview with UN
News, Chrisann explained how a 2015 court
victory against the UK Government has made
a big difference to many young UK-based
SOUKAINA (left) and Mouna work in the marketing department at Label Vie’s corporate
headquarters in Rabat. It has 35 supermarkets and 10 “hypermarkets” nationwide, with
eight supermarkets in Rabat and one hypermarket in Salé.
UN PHOTO
road. I just need it and it’s my right to have it.”
The annual meeting of the Commission,
which dates back to 1947, will bring more
than 9,000 representatives from civil society
organizations to the UN over the course of
the next two weeks. This year’s theme is
“social protection systems, access to public
services and sustainable infrastructure for
gender equality and the empowerment
15
CIVIL Society Representatives Mary Fatiya (South Sudan) and Muniba Mazari (Pakistan)
address the Commission on the Status of Women held in the General Assembly Hall at
United Nations headquarters. UN PHOTO
of all women and girls.” Many of the
marathon-discussions are expected to
also focus on gender equality and the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In his opening statement, Secretary
General António Guterres said the
Commission on the Status of Women could
equally be called the “Commission on the
Status of Power.”
result in the next pandemic moving faster and further, the agency
maintains, while also underlining that those infected with the virus can
face other health threats, such as heart attacks, strokes and severe pneumonia.
The WHO’s 11-year plan focuses on the formulation of robust
national programs and has three goals: reducing seasonal influenza,
minimizing the risk of transmission from animals to humans and
limiting the impact of a pandemic.
In addition, WHO is calling for better tools to prevent, detect, control
and treat influenza, such as more efficient vaccines
and anti-viral drugs.
Influenza outbreaks tend to emphasize the
pressures faced by health systems in low
and middle-income countries in particular,
WHO says, insisting that investing in
influenza-prevention measures will
encourage a rapid response
to many other infectious
diseases.
An outbreak in
Madagascar in 2002 had
a 2.5 percent fatality ratio,
which is very similar to the
1918-1919 pandemic, WHO
says, noting that the cost
of pandemic preparedness
globally is estimated at
$4.5 billion a year, which
is less than one per cent
of the estimated cost
needed to respond to
a “medium-to-severe”
pandemic.
“A severe pandemic
can result in millions
of deaths globally,
with widespread social
and economic effects,
including a loss of national
A PUPIL receives a vaccine against influenza at a high school in the western French town of Quimper. France
opened centers across the country to offer swine flu vaccinations to some six million people deemed most at
risk from the pandemic sweeping the world.
AFP
students born abroad.
“We recognized that over 2,000 students were
being stopped from going to university because
of their immigration status. So, despite being
lawfully resident in the country, they were being
told that they couldn’t move forward with their
education aspirations. In 2015, the Supreme
Court agreed that this was discriminatory, and
we managed to influence government policy,
which means that hundreds, if not thousands
of young migrants are able to access a student
loan and go to university, which previously
wasn’t the case.”
Women’s empowerment and gender
equality are “essential to global progress,”
United Nations (UN) Secretary General
António Guterres stressed in his message
for International Women’s Day which this
year puts “innovation by women and girls,
for women and girls,” at the heart of efforts
to achieve gender equality.
“Last year, for the first time, we achieved
gender parity in the UN’s Senior Management
Group and among those who lead UN teams
around the world,” the UN chief said, adding
that the organization is “working to achieve
parity across the whole United Nations system
within a decade.”
The UN began celebrating the International
UN health chief vows treatment centers protection
Amid a deadly Ebola outbreak, armed militia
members on 9 March 2019 brutally attacked an
Ebola clinic in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo’s (DRC) eastern city of Butembo, prompting
a call from the UN’s global health agency chief “to
protect the treatment centers.”
Just hours after the assault, Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health
Organization (WHO), toured the center, which was
also attacked last week, thanking personnel for
their steadfast dedication.
“It breaks my heart to think of the health
workers injured and police officer who died in
today’s attack, as we continue to mourn those
who died in previous attacks, while defending the
right to health,” he said. “But we have no choice
except to continue serving the people here, who
are among the most vulnerable in the world.”
The visit came as he concluded a three-day
mission to the country, along with other WHO
Being a woman has its
challenges. Being in a
wheelchair is the cherry on top
New strategy
vs ‘real’ flu threat
Globalization, urbanization and mobility
will result in the next pandemic moving
faster and further
Day in 1975, which was designated International
Women’s Year. Over the decades it has morphed
from recognizing the achievements of women
to becoming a rallying point to build support
for women’s rights and participation in the
political and economic arenas.
“Gender equality is essential to the
effectiveness of our work, and we cannot
afford to miss
out on the
contributions
of half of
the world’s
population,”
Deputy
Secretary
economic productivity and
severe economic burdens
on affected citizens and
communities” WHO says.
STUDENTS learning in Makod Primary and Secondary School in Tierkidi Refugee
Camp, Gambella Region, Ethiopia.
UNICEF
Gender empowerment essential to progress
leadership and senior United States officials who
met with the president, government officials,
partner organizations and local responders involved
in the outbreak response. He also spoke to a group
of partners, officials and staff in Butembo.
He stressed that “these are not attacks by the
community, they are attacks on the community”
conducted by “elements who are exploiting
the desperation of the situation for their own
purposes.”
General Amina J. Mohammed explained.
Moreover, “women’s equal participation
in the labor force would unlock trillions of
dollars for global development” she continued.
“Let us be clear,” she spelled out: “We
cannot build the future we want and achieve
the Sustainable Development Goals without
the full participation of women.”
AN injured suspected Mai-Mai rebel fighter is thrown into the back of a truck
outside an Ebola Treatment Center in Butembo, the epicenter of DR Congo’s
latest Ebola outbreak, after an attack on 9 March.
AFP