The government is finally tackling the water infrastructure gap in the Philippines.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources wants to refocus government’s water security strategy to maximize the utilization of the country’s resources through infrastructure projects with multi-purpose objectives.
Blessed with rich water resources, the Philippines is poor in infrastructure that can exploit and conserve its most precious asset. The advent of the El Niño weather phenomenon, or extended drought, earlier sent jitters to national and local government officials. The dry spell earlier led to water rationing in the capital region and dry irrigation canals in the provinces―a bane for Filipino farmers.
The DENR in a recent statement said the government was considering to tap water sources and recycle wastewater. It stressed the need for stable and steady water supply increases on the back of growing demand and the threat from the El Niño weather condition.
El Niño would have been a minor inconvenience for many Filipinos if policymakers and local government leaders treated the water supply quagmire with more resolve. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier called on the world to safeguard water resources to avert conflict and ensure future global prosperity.
Water, according to the UN chief, is “the most precious common good” and “needs to be at the center of the global political agenda.”
Between two and three billion people worldwide experience water shortages, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and UN-Water in the latest edition of the UN World Water Development Report.
Environment Secretary Antonia Loyzaga said the DENR would work closely with other concerned government agencies such as the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the National Economic and Development Authority, the Local Water Utilities Administration and the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System on the possibility of building public water supply facilities for multiple usage, including irrigation, power generation, industrial and commercial use as well as domestic consumption.
“We are looking at our respective budgets and our programs to see how we can design multipurpose infrastructure to actually serve the different needs of agriculture, power, water for domestic use, and for industry,” Loyzaga said.
She said the DENR and DPWH were jointly studying the construction of more water collection and impounding systems as well as flood control structures as mitigation approaches to climate change and its impacts.
The Philippines’ growing urban population, meanwhile, will remain mired in a Third World setting if the water infrastructure remains in the post World War II era.
For decades, Metro Manila and its adjacent provinces have solely relied on the water provided by the 50-year-old Angat Dam.
Loyzaga said water conservation and efficiency, along with multipurpose water infrastructure such as dams, reservoirs, sewage treatment plants, and irrigation canals would address water security challenges in the country. RSE