“…If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the Lord your God—the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants… and severe and lingering illnesses. He will bring on you all the diseases… that you dreaded, and they will cling to you… –Deuteronomy 28:58-60

A conversation overheard at a mythical barbershop run by “Pedrong Kalbo:”
Pedrong Kalbo (PK): The dengue problem has really become frighteningly worse. It is said that in Metro Manila alone, there is now a great number of people afflicted with the disease on account of the proliferation of dengue-bearing mosquitoes.
Kardong Kidlat (KK): You know, my friends, we have to ask. Why is it that dengue-bearing mosquitoes continue to multiply in alarming proportions? Where are they coming from in the first place?
Tiyagong Taga (TT): Oh, well, according to the Department of Health, mosquitoes which bring dengue come from clean water stored by the people, not from the murky and dirty water we can find in canals and waterways, and from rivers which no are no longer flowing.
Maryang Palad (MP): Ha? And why is clean water being stored by our countrymen?
PK: Isn’t it true that there is no water flowing out from household faucets because of the inability of the MWSS to fulfill its duty of providing continuous water service? So that our people will have a ready supply of water for their daily use, they store water in their pails, drums, and other plastic containers.
KK: So, that’s it. It is from these water containers stored by our people that dengue-bearing mosquitoes multiply their number.
TT: Does that mean, it is our people storing water in plastic containers that are to be blamed for the dengue rush in the country today?
MP: Excuse me! The only reason why our people are storing water is because there is no continuous water supply in their faucets, right?
PK: So, what this means is that, the dengue problem has taken on a very serious turn in the Philippines today because there are so much dengue-bearing mosquitoes, and that there are many such mosquitoes now because of the water stored by them after MWSS has not been consistently supplying them with water.
KK: So, can we say then that the reason why dengue is such a big problem now is because of the inability of MWSS to provide continuous water in our faucets? I wonder what the MWSS can say about this.

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While this was a dramatization of barbershop talk, there is a tinge of truth in the dialogue. Mosquitoes carrying the dengue virus can originate from stored clean water and, with concessionaires unable to provide a sufficient water supply, the public has resorted to storing water.
If there were no water stored in containers, would mosquitoes continue to proliferate? How would the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, Maynilad Water Services, and Manila Water respond?

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