A House of Representatives’ Technical Working Group headed by Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda is currently finalizing a bill creating the Department of Water Resources to integrate under one roof the government’s fragmented water resources management systems and pursue a sustainable and science-based program for the wise use and conservation of the country’s vital water resources.
The National Water Act bill, responds to the urgent public clamor for better water services which President Rodrigo Duterte has echoed in his recent calls. It consolidates about 30 proposals, two of which (HBs 2997 and 4944) were authored by Salceda himself, chairman of the House ways and means committee. It also seeks to establish a Water Regulatory Commission under the DWR.
Salceda said the House expects to pass in January next year the measure which lays out the National Framework for Water Resource Management, to ensure and accelerate universal public access to water and sanitation services, in a regulatory regime that encourages responsible private sector participation and involvement, fosters and prioritizes infrastructures which adopt innovative solutions and international best practices to address the challenges of climate change.
Salceda said the DWR shall be responsible for the formulation of comprehensive and integrated policies and programs on water, as well as the management system for the ownership, appropriation, development, utilization, and protection of the country’s water resources. It will ensure the optimal use of water for domestic, commercial, hydropower, irrigation, sanitation, industry, navigation, recreation, fisheries, and aquaculture. It will also be tasked to implement PD 1067 and RA 9275 or Water Code and Clean Water Act, respectively.
The WRC, directly under the DWR, will be a regulatory body which powers cover and apply to all public and private service providers for levels II and III water supply, “including those supplying water to subdivisions or providing water for sewerage, septage treatment and disposal services for domestic, institutional, industrial or commercial use.” It is also tasked to promulgate and issue rules, regulations and guidelines and reasonable technical standards for, and classifications of services; appoint the central and regional regulators; and fix and determine proper and fair rates of depreciation of properties and equipment used in Water Supply and Sanitation Services, among others
Salceda noted that the “continued overlapping and fragmented management and regulation of water resources and services hinders the development of a comprehensive, integrated and doable long-term solutions to address keen competitions, imbalanced resources utilization and conflict of interest among water users, specially in areas already identified as water-stressed.”
A 2015 independent research said more than 12 million people in the Philippines still get water from unsafe sources. President Duterte himself had issued an urgent call for action following a water crisis experienced recently in many parts of Metro Manila and neighboring areas.
Salceda said there is an urgent need to “properly plan for” the country’s “finite water resources to meet the increasing demand of a growing population, continuing economic development, and many competing users.” He stressed the need for a single authority to integrate the country's fragmented water management system, “with over 30 government units and agencies at national and local levels implementing separate and disharmonized policies and programs to develop and operate water facilities, set tariffs, and monitor water-related parameters.”
The economist lawmaker noted that climate hazards — rainfall variability, rising temperatures, rising sea level and extreme weather conditions — pose major threats to water resources and the growing population is seen to further aggravate the situation. “PAGASA’s downscaled climate projections have shown that the country’s water resources will be most adversely affected by climate hazards,” and that the 2015 World Resources Institute has “warned the Philippines will likely experience a “severe water shortage by 2040.”
The World Bank’s Philippine Environment Monitor has also reported that as of the year 2000, “compared to other countries in Southeast Asia, the Philippines already ranked second to the lowest in terms of annual renewable water resources per capita,” added Salceda
Access to safe potable drinking water has bee3n set by the United Nations as one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2010. Some 122 countries formally acknowledged this “right to water” in a UN general assembly. The UN Human Rights Council has also recognized the “right to water and sanitation” as “part of the right to an adequate standard of living.”
In the Philippines, however, as of 2015, more than 12 million people still get water from unsafe sources; more than four million people do not have access to sanitary toilets and thus defecate anywhere convenient for them, while an additional two million are limited to substandard sanitation facilities.
As pointed out by the Philippine Water Supply and Sanitation Master Plan (PWSSMP), it is imperative that these problems are promptly addressed, considering the adverse impacts of unsafe water supply and polluted waters have on people’s health and the economy.