According to The Millennium Project, "Water should be central to development and climate change strategies. Over half the world could live in water-stressed areas by 2050 due to population growth, climate change, and increasing demand for water per capita."
"According to IFPRI this would put at risk approximately $63 trillion of the global economy just 39 years from today. By 2030 global water demand could be 40% more than the current supply. This could change with new agricultural practices, policy changes, and intelligently applied new technologies."
"Otherwise conflicts over trade-offs among agricultural, urban, and ecological uses of water are likely to increase, along with the potential for mass migrations and wars. Although waterrelated conflicts are already taking place, water-sharing agreements have been reached even among people in conflict and have led to cooperation in other areas."
Local Context
Water is crucial to growing population and economy. What are water issues in Moroland? What forestall and hasten these issues (contributing factors)?
Where and when are these water issues more prevalent and imminent in the Bangsamoro homeland?
Analysis
How water issues are connected with other global challenges manifested in the Moroland? Water shortage and climate change in insular ARMM? Flooding and Climate Change in Maguindanao plains? Water Shortage, power generaion and economic development in Lanao?
How do we mitigate water issues in the short-term? How do we sustainably response to these issues in the long-term?
How do we mobilize communities and institutions to respond to water's evolutionary (unpredictable) and developmental (predictable) challenges?
Noralyn Mustafa, A Muslim writer, opines in the context of Jolo Town, "first on the list should be the return of the squatters in the town of Jolo to their places of origin in the countryside where they can be as productive as before; second would be to thoroughly dredge all the waterways in Sulu, starting from the Jolo river. This is to avoid the unimaginable loss of lives when the Big Wave strikes (maybe tomorrow, maybe next year or five years from now, nobody can tell) that will drown everything up to the present town hall."
I agree. However, Jolo LGU can not solve this problem alone. It needs the participation (including IRA contribution) of other municipalities with significant population living in Tiyangge. What this situation telling us is that water and flooding issues are not anymore local problems, but trans-boundary problems requiring the collaboration of towns and similar geo-political entities.
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