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Abstract

Imagine being told that the water in all your faucets, the water you drink and use to bathe, contains toxins such as mercury and feces. Now imagine that your local government knew about these dangers but actively refused to share them until most of the people you knew and loved had fallen ill.

This hypothetical scenario is the current reality in the Philippines. An eighth of the country’s rivers are considered too toxic for human and animal ingestion or contact and are unable to support most forms of life. Moreover, fewer than half of the total number of rivers in the Philippines have water safe enough for consumption. In recent years, contaminants found in large and small bodies of water contributed to one third of the reported illnesses in the Philippines. More surprisingly, the response by the Filipino government to combat this epidemic remains limited.

This paper supplies an in-depth description of the water crisis in the Philippines, its implications and effects on the health of local people, and its impact on the local and national economy. It will next provide four potential actions for the Filipino government to pursue and will explain potential drawbacks of these actions. From these options, this paper will select a policy recommendation that will require the government to acknowledge the concerns of international environmental organizations, namely, funding for educational intervention programs that promote awareness of the crisis. These programs would inform citizens on how to find safe drinking water and on the necessary steps to take to combat a water-borne illness. Such action allows for the Filipino government to take steps toward protecting their people while limiting the financial burden of the endeavor.

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