Senator Grace Poe pressed for the creation of a Department of Water, saying the country’s water woes are “too big” to be met by fragmented responses.
Poe also enjoined the private sector to work with the government in ensuring sustainable water management and access of the people to safe drinking water and sanitation.
“The irony is that although there is a horde of offices involved in water, there is no one agency that has overall responsibility,” the veteran legislator said in a forum on Water Security Strategy organized by the Coca Cola company.
“Our tubig sector is too big.”
“Simply put: Our tubig sector is too big. So before we all sink, we need nothing less than a Titanic reform to prevent a Titanic disaster,” the seasoned lawmaker added.
The chairperson of the Senate public services committee said that while a number of water-related agencies exist, there is evident lack of leadership and holistic planning for the sector.
The seasoned lawmaker’s Senate Bill No. 102 or the National Water Resource Management Act, which is pending at the committee level, pitches for the creation of a Department of Water Resources.
This new agency will be the primary policy planning, coordinating, and implementing entity responsible for the comprehensive and integrated development and management of water resources in the Philippines.
“Undoubtedly, the impact of having access to clean water is life-changing. But who decides which communities will receive this blessing? Consequently, one area that needs to be immediately addressed is our fragmented institutional, regulatory, and management framework,” the lady senator stressed.
The proposed department is urgent and needed as water has become a critical resource all over the world.
This calls for investments in infrastructure, technology and capacity building to meet the increasingly growing needs of the population.
“In the Philippines, two out of every 10 families do not have access to an improved source of drinking water.”
Lamentably, she said that in the Philippines, two out of every 10 families do not have access to an improved source of drinking water. Two out of 10 families also do not have access to any sanitation facility. And three out of 10 Filipino families do not have access to a hand-washing facility.
Based on a study of the National Economic Development Authority, the water availability per person in the country also amounted to 1,553 m3 (cubic meters) per year.
This is worrisome because 1,553 m3/year falls below the international ‘water stress’ threshold of 1,700m3/year and approaches the ‘water scarcity’ threshold of 1,000 m3/year, Poe said.
“A regulatory authority is necessary to ensure efficient allocation of this scarce resource. In addition to this important task, a regulator is also needed to determine just rates for water services,” she added.
Poe said that developing the water sector cannot be accomplished by the government alone.
Her bill seeks to enable the private sector, civil society and community-based organizations to be involved in the delivery of water supply, sanitation, and septage services to end-users.
“Our proposed law could be a game-changer in the area of water stewardship,” Poe said.
“Water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. Let us work together to lift the floodgates of bureaucracy, attain sustainable consumption and production, and ensure that clean water flows to every household like a mighty stream,” she concluded.
