Re-thinking our water infrastructure

The Asian Development Bank’s warning about looming water crises should move the national government and LGUs to take serious and immediate stock about current water sources and the obvious inadequacy of water infrastructure planning and investment.

The country’s most sophisticated water provision system operates in Metro Manila. Yet, in the face of a rapidly expanding population, the national capital region has been experiencing critical levels of water shortages over the past two decades.

For millions who dwell outside the gated enclaves of the metropolis, there is no end in sight for water supply rationing. But even in many enclaves, residents are already experiencing service interruptions. For instance, water supply is available to more than 50 percent of Maynilad’s customers only 7 to 13 hours a day.

Concessionaires of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage Systems (MWSS) are busy rationing the water supply that comes from Angat Dam, which accounts for more than 95 percent of the metro region’s water supply. And this unfortunate situation is likely to persist until the rains come.

Given the increasingly unpredictable weather patterns due to climate change, relying on rains for the survival and sanitation of Metro Manilans does not seem to be the wisest course. What happens if there is a mild — not to speak of a serious — drought over the metro and adjacent regions?

This is not an idle question. As summer sets in, the water level at Angat continues to fall. A week ago, it was already at 157.63 meters above sea level (masl), lower than the dam’s lowest level of 158.15 masl recorded in September 1998, an El Niño year.

Water inadequacy in the metropolis is a man-made problem — the result of decades of benign neglect, bureaucratic mismanagement, poor planning, grossly inadequate investments, rapid urbanization, and industrial development. During the previous administration, the MWSS squandered billions of taxpayers’ money without any effort to upgrade the heavily silted Angat Dam.

Gross MWSS mischief may rise to the level of plunder. This was made possible, in large part, due to the overlapping functions of at least a dozen government agencies involved in water management. A think-tank and advocacy group, Forensic Law and Policy Strategies Inc., contends that despite the abundance of water, the country is suffering from shortages due to fragmented management and unduly intricate regulatory structure in the governance of this basic resource.

Water scarcity is typically measured in terms of how much water is available to one person living in a given country and in a particular year.

When annual water supplies drop below 1,700 cubic meters per person, that country is suffering water stress. If less than 1,000 cubic meters per person per year, the population is experiencing water scarcity. Below the danger point of 500 cubic meters, the population is facing absolute scarcity.

By this measure, the Philippines — with annual average water footprint of 1,378 cubic meters per capita — is encountering severe water stress. Interestingly, our country compares favorably with China (1,071) and India (1,089) but badly with the United Arab Emirates (3,136) and Mexico (1,978). The annual US average footprint is 2,842 cubic meters per capita.

Asia Water Development Outlook 2013, the first study of the degree of water security of every country in the region, reported the Philippines “performed poorly in the National Water Security Index. Together with Vietnam, it received the lowest score of one in urban water security among ASEAN countries. The two countries also tied at second to the bottom in water security.”

This should deeply worry our policy-makers. Self-sufficiency in terms of water availability is crucial not only in the urban context, but also to the country’s development. The demand for more power to fuel economic growth emphasizes the need to harness more clean energy, particularly water for hydropower dams, rather than polluting diesel and coal-fired plants.

Without doubt, the issue of water and water security needs to move up quickly in our national agenda. We urgently need a well-considered, long-term blueprint that takes into account projections of urban development, land management, and climate change as basis of future impacts on water security.

We would do well to study the example of Singapore, a small nation-state that has solved its water security for the next half a century.

Without losing their focus on the environment, Singapore’s leaders crafted pragmatic policies and forward-looking strategies that, coupled with political will, laid vigorous foundations for sustainable development. Over the last 40 years, they have built a diversified supply of water to supplement the volume it imports from Malaysia through pipelines.

It has engineered systems to collect rainwater and used water; it is now beginning to harness water from the remaining streams and rivulets near the shoreline using technology that can treat water of varying salinity. This will boost Singapore’s water catchment area to 90% by 2060.

As a signatory to UN Resolution 64/292 in July 2010, the Philippines recognizes the human right to water and sanitation. We are committed to provide financial resources, help capacity-building and technology transfer to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all.

It is high time for us to start demonstrating our commitment, and we can begin with Metro Manila.

(Heherson T. Alvarez is a two-term former Senator, and former Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. He chaired the Senate committee on environment for 10 years and convened the 1st Asia Pacific Leaders Conference on Climate Change in 1995. He initiated the crafting of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.)