With the fight against the dreaded COVID-19 virus reaching its crescendo, we are finally seeing giant leaps of progress in finally quelling the pandemic.
We may see medical frontliners in full gear as the faces of this battle against the coronavirus, but at the forefront of keeping the world a healthy place amid this crisis is the water industry which ensures a steady flow of an essential resource pivotal in combating the global pandemic.
With 532 operational water districts serving communities in the countryside, the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) made huge strides during the lockdown to bring an uninterrupted supply of safe and clean water in the regions.
“The water industry is in the forefront of the fight against COVID 19 because it supplies the water needed for hand washing and bathing, cleaning of utensils, equipment and premises to fight the virus, and prevent infection and transmission of the disease” said LWUA administrator Jeci Lapus in an interview with Manila Standard.
“Access to clean water and sanitation is, therefore, a critical element to protect human health during the pandemic,” he added.
According to the agency, the water sector needs to address the growing demand for access to clean water, not only during this pandemic but because of the demand of the significant increase in population, especially in fast-emerging provincial urban centers.
With the effects of pandemic still present, more challenges added to this roadblock, including limited funding and hampered infrastructure projects amid the lockdown.
Banking on a seven-point strategy, LWUA streamlined its services from top to bottom, rallying to help its water districts facing headwinds in the time of COVID, which included a moratorium on loan payments and utilization of funds to ease 33 water districts’ operational expenses nationwide amounting to P633M.
But these measures can only do so much, that’s why Lapus has been drumbeating for some time now the drive for an agency establishing a national framework of water resource management.
“The main role of the Department of Water Resources (DWR) is to ensure safe, adequate, reliable, and affordable water supply for our people and ensure good governance and effective regulation of the water service,” Lapus explained. As of December 2020, the funding provision of the bill seeking to create the Department of Water Resources (DWR) has already been approved by the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives.
The bill seeks a P2-billion fund for the creation of the new department. Under the bill, the new Department shall be the primary national agency responsible for the planning, policy formulation, and management of water resources in the country.