One single water authority

BANTAYGOBYERNO

Ike Señeres

When it comes to electricity, there is only one government agency that functions as the central authority, and that is no other than the Department of Energy (DOE). Aside from that, the DOE is also the central authority on top of fuel, and there is no doubt about that. That is not the case when it comes to water, because there is no single central authority that is on top of everything that is water related. Just like electricity and fuel, water is a commodity that is a public utility, and therefore it is necessary to manage its complete supply chain. In order to put this discussion in the right perspective, I should first define fuel to mean not just fossil fuels, but also renewable fuels such as biogas. That said, I will now add that the complete supply chain of fuel should also include all renewable fuels.

Perhaps it is very easy for the government to realize and understand that electricity and fuel are parts of complete supply chains, but that reality seems to escape them when it comes to water. As it is generally understood, electricity derived from the use of fossil fuels is technically imported, because the inputs are imported. Generally speaking, it is very easy to pinpoint where the supply chain of electricity starts, because it starts from the power plants. Some might say the supply chain starts from the oil fields, but that is another story. In a manner of speaking, the supply chain of fuels would start at the oil refineries, or at the refilling plants, depending on who is looking.

In the case of water, it is very difficult to pinpoint where its supply chain would start, because there are many possible starting points. Unlike electricity and fuel, there is no such thing as a real water production plant or a water refinery, so to speak. The closest that we could get to that perhaps is a water filtering station, but that seems to be too far down the line in the complete supply chain of water. If you ask me however, I would suggest that the supply chain of water actually starts in the mountains, where the water is collected in the roots of the trees, thereafter the water would flow down to the lowlands to end up in the watersheds, the aquifers, the rivers and the oceans.

To some extent, it could be said that the facilities of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and the Local Waterworks Utilities Authority (LWUA) could be considered as water plants, but that is debatable, because the only value added activity that they are doing is to filter the water. Strictly speaking, MWSS and LWUA are not really producing water, because they are merely drawing these from natural sources that are just waiting to be harvested. It is necessary to make this clarification, because there are technologies that are now available that could actually produce clean water from the atmosphere, or from the oceans, the latter by way of desalination.

We may not see the connection yet, but the key to affordable desalination is renewable energy that is cheap, compared to petroleum based fossil energy. The good news here is that the infrastructure needed to produce renewable energy has also become cheaper. That includes solar, wind and hydro sources, among others. As additional good news, several companies have now come up with equally affordable batteries that could store energy that is derived from solar panels, among which are Tesla, LG and GE. According to reliable sources, these batteries will bring down power costs to very low levels, so much so that it would even become affordable to use electric stoves instead of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stoves.

If power costs will go down and if the need for cooking fuels is eliminated, our only remaining problem is water, meaning to say water as a public utility. Needless to say, the need for automotive fuels might either be lessened or minimized, because these solar storage batteries could also be used for transport vehicles. In a recent invention breakthrough, one test motorcycle that is powered by a battery has already surpassed the speed record of gasoline powered motorcycles. Sooner or later, we would be hearing breakthroughs for cars, vans and buses too. This will actually be a double victory for the environment, because it will not only reduce the use of fossil fuels, it will also reduce vehicle emissions.

From the time that Israel was threatened by droughts six years ago, the situation has already changed, because they already have plenty of water due to a massive water conservation and desalination program. Although it could be said that Israel’s turnaround could be attributed to the good combination of energy and technology, the real reason for their success was the establishment eight years ago of its Water and Sewerage Authority, a very powerful inter-ministerial agency. The Director of this agency is appointed by the Israeli Cabinet and he or she reports directly to the Israeli Parliament and the Minister of Energy and Water Resources. To my knowledge, Israel is the only country that has combined energy and water into one Ministry.

Because of its inter-ministerial character, the Israeli Authority exercises its powers with the consent of the Ministers of Agriculture, Environmental Protection, Health, Finance and the Interior. The administration of the Authority is overseen by a Council that is composed of senior representatives from these five Ministries. I would venture to guess that the consent of the concerned Ministers is obtained through the participation of their representatives to the Council. I think that that is a very practical arrangement, because it would allow direct consultation by way of good coordination. That way also, none of the Ministers are bypassed.

Here in the Philippines, there are around thirty departments, bureaus, corporations and other government instrumentalities that are directly or indirectly involved with the complete supply chain of water, one way or the other. For the record, there is a National Water Resources Board (NWRB) that is under the Department of Environment &Natural Resources (DENR). By the looks of it, its purpose is conceptually the same as the Israeli Authority, except that its Executive Director is not appointed by the Philippine Cabinet, and it does not report directly to the Congress. Aside from the DENR Secretary, it has four other Cabinet Secretaries as members, namely the Secretaries of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Department of Health (DOH).

For some reason, the MWSS and the LWUA are not even members of the NWRB, and so are many other agencies that have obviously some kind of water related functions, such as the Department of Public Works & Highways (DPWH), the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Forest Management Bureau (FMB), the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), the National Irrigation Authority (NIA), the Bureau of Soil & Water Management (BSWM), the Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), the Public Estates Authority (PEA), the National Power Corporation (NPC), the National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Council (NDRRMC) and the Climate Change Commission (CCC).

I do not know what happened between here and there, but Executive Order No. 124-A signed by President Corazon C. Aquino specifically states that the NWRB should be under the DPWH. What is confusing is that the same EO also ordered the transfer of the technical functions of the NWRB to the Bureau of Research & Standards (BRS) of the DPWH. In the midst of this confusion, it is very clear that as of now, we do not have a central water authority with a head that could function as a “water czar”. In this connection, I think that it would be a good idea to follow the Israeli model wherein the “water czar” could exercise executive functions as needed, provided that he or she does so with the consent of all other government agencies that would have something to do with the complete supply chain of water, directly or indirectly, one way or the other.

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