Two House committees on Monday, Nov. 28, created a technical working group (TWG) to hammer out the details for a substitute bill that would consolidate 35 proposed measures on the creation of a Department of Water Resources (DWR) to improve the country’s water management and oversee the critical supply of fresh water.
House Committees on Government Reorganization and Public Works and Highways, headed by Surigao del Sur 1st District Rep. Romeo Momo, led the initial deliberation during a joint committee hearing where Albay 2nd District Rep. and House Ways and Means chair Joey Salceda was named TWG chair.
Momo said he “strongly supports” the “immediate passage” of the bill as he underscored the importance of the DWR, of which a substitute bill that consolidated several measures was already approved in the 18th Congress, because water is a public utility that “needs to be regulated.”
“The DWR will serve as primary national agency responsible for policy formulation, planning, coordination, implementation, and monitoring of the development and management of the country’s water resources,” he explained.
“The creation of a new department will set policies and implement structural reforms on water management that will address various issues, including the critical supply of fresh water,” Momo said, adding that this will also ensure affordable water for Filipinos.
The bill, Salceda said, would aim to “ensure and accelerate universal access to water supply and sanitation services, to encourage responsible private sector participation, fostering and prioritizing infrastructure and public works that adopt innovative solutions and international best practices to address the challenges of climate change; and to declare all water and water treatment infrastructure projects as projects imbued with national interest.”
The TWG would aim to resolve the following pending issues: attachment of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to the proposed department, the inclusion of sewage systems under the jurisdiction of the department, and the inclusion of flood control planning in the department’s functions.
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The veteran lawmaker lamented that only 43 percent of the country’s population has access to level 3 water supply, even as the country only uses 21 percent of its total potential water supply.
"We generate some 2200 mm of annual rainfall, nearly thrice what God gives China. So, we don't have a water scarcity issue. We have a water management issue,” he explained.
He also pointed out the highly unequal access to water, especially across income classes.
Iloilo 3rd District Rep. Lorenz Defensor, however, pointed out the vagueness of the proposed bills in terms of identifying the implementing agency.
“The 35 bills as they are filed are very broad in themselves,” he said, adding that sewerage and treatment of water should be added in the substitute bill.
The lawmaker also suggested that the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), and the private sector provide inputs of what they think should be the priority measures and priority projects of the bill that need funding.
NEDA, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), the Maynilad Water Services, and Manila Water all support the creation of the DWR.
Saying that NEDA is at the “forefront” of the push to create a DWR since 1999, NEDA Assistant Secretary Roderick Planta said that they will look at the House Bills “as a starting point.”
A representative from the DBM also agreed with Defensor about the role of NWRB in the creation of a separate department for water resources because it currently handles the country’s water resource management.
DPWH Assistant Secretary Anne Sharlyne Lapuz, however, raised concerns about the overlapping functions of the DPWH and the DWR.
While the department recognizes that “there is a disjointed governance with respect to the management of the water resources of the country,” she pointed out that flood control and drainage management, which are proposed functions of the DWR in the proposals, are being handled by “scattered units or bureaus” in the DPWH.