Congress must address our water crisis
During this Middle East crisis, we have been reminded about oil’s critical role in our lives. But even more important is water. Congress must now address this issue.
In its March 29 editorial “Deepening water crisis,” the Philippine Daily Inquirer pointed out three inconvenient truths.
The first is that, while the Middle East war relates to oil, the next global conflict will be fought over water. The second is that 40 million Filipinos, or one-third of our population, have no access to potable water.
The third is Environment Secretary Juan Miguel Cuna’s warning: “We are currently facing what we call water bankruptcy, a structural imbalance where our consumption far outpaces nature’s ability to replenish our tank.”
Here are additional alarming facts. Every day, 70 people die from water-related diseases.
There is massive flooding because 8 million of our 15 million forest hectares have been denuded, while 300,000 of our 500,000 hectares have been lost.
We lack water because our rain harvesting rate is 5 percent, way below the 40 percent in parts of China and India. Finally, our 32 water-related government agencies have very inadequate coordination.
Water governance
This water bankruptcy Cuna identified will not happen if we have better water governance.
Last April 1, we talked to Dr. Patricia Sanchez, chair of the UPLB International Studies Center for Water.
This center was established after she served as the technical head of the 2017 public-private task force on water, which reported to the president.
Sen. Loren Legarda led the legislative branch. Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, with five departments, led the executive branch.
The private sector was represented by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the AgriFisheries Alliance (composed of Alyansa Agrikultura for farmers and fisherfolk, the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food for agribusiness and the Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines for science and academe).
The task force held seven summits on seven water issues in different parts of the country. These issues were derived from the Asian Development Bank water governance studies in 2014 and 2017. We were ranked in the bottom third of 48 countries.
These issues were governance, economics, agriculture, environment, urban, domestic/household and resilience. For each issue, a separate volume was written and signed by the appropriate UPLB dean.
Recommendations
The task force identified three major recommendations. The first is the creation of an apex body, like a Department of Water. The second is the application of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) implemented through our 18 major public-private River Basin Management Councils.
The third is to improve our water conservation and collection, with reforestation, mangrove development and irrigation systems with water encatchment.
When I asked Sanchez why the results expected from the task force have not been seen for the last seven years, she answered with two words: structure and budget.
On structure, a Department of Water Resources bill was finally passed by the House of Representatives last December. However, the Senate counterpart bill is still pending at the committee level.
On budget, Environment Undersecretary Carlos Primo David lamented that “the agency could only ask a small amount from the Department of Budget and Management.”
A disturbing note is that the 18 public-private River Basin Management Councils, tasked with guiding the IWRM system recognized worldwide, have an average budget of less than P2 million each.
Though part of the flood control budget has been allocated to water encatchment projects, this is far from adequate.
Congress must now correct this pattern of water misgovernance through structure and budget. Oil is critical. But in the short and long run, water is more critical than oil.
The author is Agriwatch chair, former secretary of presidential flagship programs and projects and former undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry. Contact is agriwatch_phil@yahoo.com
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