Too many water bodies while supply runs short

At this early part of the year, while we still enjoy the relatively cooler season, alarm bells have already been raised. It is not the summer period yet in our country. But the specter of our water supply shortage looms with the long dry spell ahead. The summer period normally starts in April in the Philippines. However, the palpable effects of climate change have rendered our country’s dry and wet season now unpredictable.

The National Water Resources Board (NWRB) reminded the public to start observing water conservation measures. Closely monitoring the water elevation in various dams across the Philippines, the NWRB advised the public “to ensure that there will be enough water during the dry season.”

In fact, The Philippine Star splashed a photo in our front page last Friday on the status of water elevation at the La Mesa Dam in Quezon City. Providing for the drinking water needs of the people in the entire National Capital Region (NCR), the water elevation at La Mesa Dam stood that day at 78.78 meters below its normal high-water level of 80.15 meters.

It is quite ironic for Filipinos to live in an archipelagic country surrounded by large bodies of water and yet still suffer the recurring problem of water supply shortage.

Over a breakfast meeting on the same day, Israel ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss pointed to the attention-grabbing photo about the feared water crisis anew here. A half-arid land located in the Middle East, Israel has been known to be self-sufficient in its own water supply primarily with their advanced desalination technology. But according to Amb. Fluss, Israel has also made great strides in the treatment of recycled sewage water.

“Why waste good water for irrigation when treated sewage water can be used?” the Israel ambassador rhetorically asked.

Amb. Fluss disclosed that the Israel Embassy in Manila is putting together a proposal they intend to present before the next Congress of the Philippines to tap into this Israeli treatment technology of sewage water. He noted there are pending bills in the outgoing 18th Congress on a proposed creation of a single body of water authority where this proposal could best fit in for the Philippines.

There are three similar bills pending in various Senate committees. At the House of Representatives, House Bill 9948, or the National Water Act approved by four committees already on Sept. 6 last year but were not tackled at the floor for plenary debate. Both chambers adjourned for the election campaign last Feb. 2 without acting on it.

Aside from La Mesa Dam, the NWRB also supervises the rest of water dams all over the country. Despite the declining water level, the NWRB decided to maintain the current allocation of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) from the Angat Dam in Bulacan. The NWRB earlier urged the public to conserve and use water wisely due to Angat Dam’s lower-than-expected water level to ensure that sufficient water is available for municipal irrigation and hydropower uses in the subsequent months.

This brings into the picture the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) which is primarily responsible for irrigation development and management as created by Republic Act (RA) 3601 on June 22, 1963. But aside from the NIA, some of the biggest dams in the country are also controlled by the National Power Corp. (NPC) to run these hydro-electric plants.

The primary function of the NWRB was spelled out in the Water Code of the Philippines under Presidential Decree (PD) 1067. This martial law edict signed in 1976 by the late president Ferdinand Marcos amended a previously PD issued in 1974 that first created a National Water Resources Council. Under the Water Code, it provided among others that the utilization, exploitation, development, control, conservation, or protection of water resources shall be subject to the control and regulation of the government through the Council.

Subsequently, the late president Corazon Aquino reorganized the Council when she signed Executive Order No. (EO) 124 in 1987 that renamed and reorganized the Council into NWRB. At the same time, it transferred all its technical functions to a Bureau of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Fast forward. When president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took over the government, she issued EO 123 in 2002 that reconstituted the membership of the NWRB and transferred it to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The NWRB continues to be attached to the DENR up to present as a bureau for purposes of administrative control and supervision. Incidentally, erstwhile DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu resigned last week due to poor health.

As a policy-making, regulatory and quasi-judicial body, the NWRB was mandated by Mrs. Arroyo’s EO 860 in 2010 to desist from regulating the water tariffs on all Water Districts. Henceforth, this was given to the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) in accordance with PD 198 issued in 1973.

Like the NIA, the LWUA is a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC). But LWUA has a specialized lending function mandated by law to promote and oversee the development of water supply systems in provincial cities and municipalities outside of Metro Manila.

For the NCR, it is the MWSS – under the Office of the President – that regulates the two private water concessionaires, Manila Water and the Maynilad Water, in supplying the water needs in Metro Manila.

The NWRB alert on anticipated water supply shortage was based from the forecasts of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). The weather experts of PAGASA said the La Niña phenomenon, or long rainy period, is still upon us. It was only on Dec. 16 last year when we had the most devastating force of too much water due to typhoon “Odette.”

The La Niña phenomenon would only last until March, per PAGASA forecast. Then the El Niño phenomenon, or the long dry spell, will persists for the rest of this year.

With so many government agencies on top of the water situation, who needs summer?