Water security

PUNCHLINE

Ike Seneres

I am familiar with the concept of food security, but still I was surprised to find out that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has come up with a National Water Security Index (NWSI). The ADB has given the Philippines a score of 2, out of a scale of 5.

The good news is, no single country has gotten a score of 5. The bad news is, the Philippines is too far away from the highest score of 4 so far.

The Philippines got a score of 2 because the ADB noted that we have the basic policy framework to lay the groundwork for good water security, but apparently that is all we have so far, because we are still too far away from the actual implementation of the policy framework, and that is why we did not get a high score.

Years ago, I wrote a paper about the need to integrate water policy in the Philippines, noting that our overall policy framework at that time was too compartmentalized, or too Balkanized, as I like to call it in political science terms. Apparently, nothing much has changed since then. On the upside, the government has already seen the need for a “super body” for water, but that still remains as a plan right now.

The first thing that the government should realize is that water is a commodity that involves a complete supply chain, and the only way to integrate water policy is to include all the components of that supply chain. Of course, the government also needs to realize that since water is a commodity, it is subject to the law of supply and demand.

According to the practice in many countries, the producer of the water should clean it first, before returning it to the natural environment. This practice might work for those countries, because their waterworks and sewerage authorities are functionally combined. That is how it is supposed to be here in the Philippines also, but somewhere along the way, something went wrong with this system.

In theory, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) is supposed to include sewerage services as part of their functions, as its name implies.

As it happened however, very few sewerage systems were built in Metro Manila and that is why most of our sewage either goes directly into the ground, or are flushed into septic tanks.

The two water concessionaires in Metro Manila are also supposed to include sewerage as part of their services, but they are not doing that either. To add insult to injury, they are collecting sewerage fees, even if they are not providing these services either. The money side is actually a separate issue because the main issue here is that the sewerage function is not being done, and because of that, one major component of the water supply chain is broken.

In the organizational chart of the government, the MWSS has jurisdiction over Metro Manila, while the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) has jurisdiction over the rest of the country. Just like in Metro Manila however, the LWUA is also not performing the sewerage function in the rest of the country, although some local water districts have apparently built their own systems.

In many other countries, the delivery of sewerage services is not a problem, because it is actually an opportunity for local governments to earn revenues. In those countries, sewerage fees are billed along with garbage fees, the latter also a source of revenues for local governments. For some reason, our local governments here in the Philippines are not billing for either of these services.

LWUA Administrator Rene Villa says that some septic tank service providers in the Philippines may be breaking the law and are actually destroying the environment by illegally dumping septic waste into the natural environment when no one is looking. According to him, the solution to this is to build local sewage treatment plants where septic waste could be delivered to and are cleaned before these are released back to nature.

Although the jurisdiction of LWUA is limited only to the provision of water, Mr. Villa is concerned about sanitation issues in the provincial areas, noting that many people do not even have toilets, and even if they do, their septic wastes are not properly disposed of.

He is aware that the NWSI rating of the Philippines is very low, and apparently he attributes that also to the fragmented structure of our water policy framework. If and when the President decides to appoint a water czar who will preside over the planned “super body” for water, Villa could be a good candidate for that.

Meanwhile, the threat about a looming water crisis in the near future is about as real as the possibility that floods will happen again as the rains would fall again. We do not need a rocket scientist to predict that this would happen again, and neither do we need a rocket scientist to figure out that water is the same commodity that comes with the floods, as it is also the same commodity that we need to tap in order to solve the water crisis.

First things first however, that “super body” for water has to be created, and the water czar has to be appointed as soon as possible. What is important is that the said “super body” has to address the overall water crisis from the top, and it should look into the complete supply chain of water, not just its individual components. Needless to say, it should also address climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR).

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