BY: HAZEL F. GLORIA
CEBU CITY, March 21 (PIA) --- The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-7) joins the nation and the rest of the world in celebrating the World Water Day, tomorrow, March 22.
This year’s local theme is “Water is Power,” to focus on the growing awareness that saving water may be one of the most effective ways to save energy – and vice versa.
In a press statement, DENR-7 regional executive director Dr. Isabelo R. Montejo explained, this is to put more emphasis on the important relationship between water and power, and how they are highly dependent as producing energy uses water, and providing freshwater utilizes energy.
“We have been using energy to produce water supply which is perhaps enough reason to conserve more water,” he added.
According to statistics, about 17 million people in the Philippines have no access to safe drinking water and over 15 million still have no access to electricity.
Montejo stressed that water is essential to sustain life.
“Man can survive without food for 40 days but cannot survive without water for four days. We need water like a car needs gas and oil to run. All our cells and organs that make up our anatomy depend on water for proper functioning,” he continued.
On the other hand, Montejo appealed to the public to conserve more water and avoid polluting the water bodies especially now that it’s already summer.
He said that water becomes even more important and very precious during the hot summer months as the human body is composed of 70 percent water and the need to replenish lost water is paramount.
Meanwhile, the celebration of March 22 as “World Day for Water” was declared in 1993 by the United Nations General Assembly. This year’s international theme is “Water and Energy.”(mbcn/HFG/PIA7/DENR-7)