IN A RECENT RADIO INTERVIEW, an official of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) expressed concern that Metro Manila residents might not fully appreciate the real possibility of severe water shortage.

After all, water continues to flow from their taps and images of parched soil and dried-up crops come from Northern Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

Blithe announcements from officials of dams that everything is A-OK at their end and water levels have not fallen to critical levels only make Metro residents complacent, ignoring repeated calls to conserve water.

The truth is, with or without El Niño, water shortage is a very real threat. Experts have warned for over a decade that water may soon be an even more precious commodity than oil and that wars may be waged over it.

The aquifers, underground water sources, are drying up. People have to dig deeper and deeper to find water and, in many instances, seawater has made the water salty and unusable.

Forests are being decimated at dizzying rates that there are not enough trees to hold rainwater and feed the aquifers. Water flows down mountains and floods the lowlands.

Many potential water sources have become so polluted they do not even support marine life.

Officials who try to downplay the severity of the situation and continue to give assurances that there is no water shortage are making the problem worse as people continue in their merry, profligate ways, wasting a very valuable resource.

Water conservation should be a way of life. The shortage caused by El Niño should be looked upon as an opportunity to draw up long-term water conservation programs.

Incidentally, the reported advice of a prison nurse to inmates to bathe three times a day to prevent skin infections would seem pretty out of sync with the current drive for water conservation. Besides, the inmates could take a bath three times a day but unless they clean themselves well it will hardly matter. If they just stand under a shower to cool off, that will hardly qualify as a bath.

It may be better to advise the inmates to make sure they clean every part of their body thoroughly with soap when they bathe, even if it is only once a day, to prevent skin diseases.

Ester?s request

Inquirer columnist Jimmy Licaoco says there have been a few verified cases of dead people signing documents.

So now Ester Dipasupil is willing to give the courier who delivers her monthly phone bill the benefit of the doubt (Feb. 24). Perhaps he really did see her father, who has been dead for 24 years, and got him to sign the delivery receipt. If so, Ester would like the courier, the next time he delivers the bill to her father, to collect the payment from the late lawyer Dipasupil, too.

Whose problem is it?

The traffic lights at the corner of Estrada and Singalong Streets in Malate have not been working for more than a month. Who is supposed to repair it and why has it not been fixed?

That intersection gets quite busy, especially on school days. With three schools close to that area?De La Salle University, DLSU-College of St. Benilde and St. Scholastica?s College?dozens of cars and school buses, not to mention public utility vehicles, including buses occasionally, pass through that intersection. It seems strange that the problem has not been acted upon until now.

For seniors

A study by researchers at the University of Iowa in Iowa City suggests people may indeed have trouble making good decisions as they age, which is why they are favorite targets of con artists.

The New York Times said researchers found that even people of high intellect and good memory might exercise poor judgment in many important real-life matters because of changes taking place in the brain.

Send letters to The Consumer, Lifestyle Section, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 1098 Chino Roces Ave. cor. Mascardo and Yague Sts., 1204 Makati City; fax 8974793/94; or e-mail lbolido@ inquirer.com.ph.