(Unsplash)





Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda is pushing for the consolidation of water districts that are inefficient or non-operational amid what he described as an "ongoing water crisis exacerbated by the El Nino phenomenon". Salceda, the chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, directed this call to Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) Administrator Vince Revil. “I call on the administrator to exercise that agency’s mandate to hold water districts to account more," the economist-congressman said. Salceda estimates that some 300 water districts are currently non-operational or barely operational--meaning that the areas they serve do not have functioning central water systems. “You could combine those water districts into clusters to make infrastructure investments more efficient," he said. He went on to explain why this move make sense. “The thing with water is that it is infrastructure-intensive, it requires a lot of fixed costs, and it is only viable with enough revenue-paying users. So, if a water district is too small, or has too little demand, it’s doomed to fail – or will never mature to provide sanitation services, which are also expensive.” Salceda also called on the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the economic managers to come up with guidelines and incentives for local-government “water alliances” for multiple LGUs to share water management. “They can be better managed if they share resources – from pipelines to reservoirs. That’s the best way to make use of the PBBM administration’s historic investments in water resources.” Salceda added that the House of Representatives is considering language in the proposed National Water Act  -- which would create a Department of Water Resources – to compel water districts and LGU-run water service providers to consolidate into more efficient and economically-sensible entities. “Water, whether we like it or not, is not a localized issue. To manage water resources well, you need more scale, more coordination, more long-term planning, and more resource-sharing. Otherwise, you will have some places that have abundant water, and many more places that have completely zero access to quality running water," the Bicolano said.