Best Posts in Thread: Cebu and Bohol now in state of calamity due to lack of water from El Niño

If you own or are planning on building your home a well is something to look into; if not your primary water source at least as a back up. Where we are the city water pressure was bad so when we built I did not even bring in city water; a well, pump and elevated tank provides enough water pressure. With a float switch controlling the electric pump you really don't have to think about much other than changing the filter every couple of months.

Shawn

 

I wonder how much of that water is being lost to crappy infrastructure or user negligence. I remember meeting a Peace Corp worker on Panglao Island. He had a PhD in Engineering and was doing some volunteer work setting up water systems for people in the hills. He said they needed to charge for the water, otherwise the people would just leave the water running all the time.

 

I agree with the previous commenter that suggests water is like gold and it is worthwhile getting into. Without naming names there is a foreigner who has drilled down to the water table here on Siquijor who charges P150 per cubic metre for the locals. That's disgraceful imo, the poor folks of the baranguay can barely afford it if you factor in travel and haulage - sometimes it works out at more than P15 per gallon jerry can.

So I turned my thoughts to this on the last trip. We have some land that sits above an Australian surveyed water table. There is plenty of water there. So I have started drilling. The plan is to undercut said foreigner who supplies the resorts and allow the locals to draw water at cost + salary for the groundsman/upkeep etc. We've worked it out at roughly P2-5 per gallon jerry can. We will profit on the resort supply.

Call me a fool for not picking up on the profit where it is to be made, but such charges really stick in my craw for a natural resource. I'll never be a millionaire for sure, and my competitor-rival certainly is not one - most of the locals speak of him in disparaging tones. I'd rather have the good will of the locals, the knowledge that I am supplying a reasonable service without profiteering and the satisfaction for a good job done.

Cheers,

C

 

Yes. NESTLES owns quite a bit of the major mountain springs in California. So while the underground aquifers are being pumped dry, when they are all used up by the public water companies and the farmers, then NESTLES can come along and sell their spring water for drinking water.

Not sure where the farmers are going to get their water - guess the Valley that feeds 1/3 of California (and more) will become the Dust Bowl.

Oh, sorry. They are already doing this. Think Arrowhead - the bottled brand water.

Nestle drawing millions of gallons of California water on expired permit, suit claims

Nestle Pays Only $524 To Extract 27,000,000 Gallons Of California Drinking Water

Yep. Hope this way of doing business and making cororate profits doesn't come your way, though it sounds like something similar could very well be happen or be happening in your region, too.

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you?

Variations on a theme?

nwlivewire

 

Yeah, no problems, all covered. Not the most popular neighbour in the baranguay...rellies are baranguay Capts etc, I have my ear to the ground. Cheers for pointing the risks out though.

C

 

Don't know if Gore or "Gore thinking" has anything to do with this water for profit development, but this business (corporate) way of making money is about the fact they can take a basic necessity for life, "buy" it, and make people go to their last penny to have it. I'm thinking: since when does such a basic need (like water) become something solely controlled by a non-entity? Is buying fresh, clean air the next "big thing" people have to look forward to as a daily purchase - or die?

Although I can't put my finger on it to specifically say WHY, I'm very uneasy with this Nestles and Oregon water thing. The majority of people around these parts do NOT want Nestles to be there in this manner. They know what Nestles has done in the past to other areas they have gone into with these types of water "deals" - and they know what the outcomes have been. And while Nestles is hanging out a tempting "morsel" of jobs (under 100 jobs for this region) at the end of their "hook", many locals in that area are not very keen to take their bait. The propanda wars are raging there, with Nestles and anti-Nestles sides heavily invested in the outcomes in who has the rights to control such a basic need and at what costs to themselves, to others, and to the environment? Who really benefits from this Nestles "deal"? Does anyone (other than Nestles)?

(I'm curious about the Native American tribes who live in this area and have recognized tribal fishing rights there. Wonder what they have to say about this "Corporate White Man" deal?)

Like I wrote above, I hope this doesn't come to your neighborhood soon, though it appears there is already the makings of a variation on a theme already there - "Philippine-style".

V/R,
nwlivewire

 

All water companies in the Philippines are privately owned and all the rules and regulations are written by the water companies themselves another form of Philippine corruption.

 

I hadn't thought that far, but I like where you're going with this.