PROMDI Presidential candidate Manny Pacquiao raised the need to create a separate government agency tasked to manage and regulate the use of this precious natural resource.
During the Commission on Elections second “PiliPinas Presidential Debates,” Pacquiao said that it is about time that the government should have its own Department of Water.
The department will have jurisdiction over the regulation, management, and development of the country’s water resources, including the sewerage system.
According to Pacquiao, pollution, climate change, overpopulation, illegal logging, and the shrinking watershed areas are pushing a lot of pressure on private water concessionaires to have an adequate water supply, especially during the dry season.
Adequate irrigation is also a problem for the country’s 10 million farmers even if the archipelago is surrounded by water.
During the rainy season and typhoons, he said many parts of the country are inundated with floodwaters that even cause death and widespread destruction but only a fraction end up in water reservoirs to be processed for public use.
Pacquiao has been batting for the creation of the Department of Water as he raised the need to integrate, synchronize and systematize the operation, regulation, and management of the country’s water resource.
Three years ago, Pacquiao has filed Senate Bill 195 seeking the creation of the Department of Water Resources “which will holistically integrate all measures designed to ensure the availability and quality of water, and synchronize all the acts of all government agencies that have water-related functions.” Macon Ramos-Araneta
“The government has more than 30 different agencies/units that have water-related functions but the centrality of data on water resources remains absent. The lack of a lead government body coordinating with water-related issues contributes to the growing water crisis. Actual integration needs a law,” Pacquiao said in his bill which remains pending in the Senate Committee on Public Services.
Meanwhile, despite the rainy season, the lack of water supply continues to burden Metro Manila and its neighboring provinces because there is no real effort to harness the rain and floodwaters as a reserve to avert shortages during the dry season.