Towards a Department of Water and Marine Resources

It should be a powerful department. Otherwise, the people of this country will continue to experience the present uncoordinated and inefficient handling of water-related issues.

The principal purpose for which changes in the Cabinet structure are made is the achievement of greater efficiency. Towards the achievement of greater efficiency, departments and agencies are created, cancelled or relocated. A department or agency that is unable to operate at highest efficiency because of superfluity or of being misplaced is a drag on the government’s mission of being a reliable provider of good public services.

For some time now, there has been a clamor for the passage of a law creating a Cabinet department that will assure the Filipino people of a steady supply of water and mitigate the impact of floods, droughts and other incidents of climate change.

The clamor has grown progressively louder as the impact of climate change has grown more horrendous. Thus, far little is known about the structure of the proposed department – to be called, apparently, the Department of Water – but its proponents appear to have their eyes on the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), the Local Waterworks Utilities Authority (LWUA) and the other agencies involved in the production, use and regulation of water resources.

To confine the components of the proposed department to the usual suspects of the water sector would be a mistake. Water is too vital to human existence – to household, agriculture, irrigation, power generation and industry – that any change in the way it is produced, used and regulated must be comprehensive, i.e., must take into consideration the agencies and offices located elsewhere in the government that perform functions involving water. The proposed department should be a Department of Water and Marine Resources.

There are two reasons why the proposed department should have within its administrative ambit all of this country’s water resources one reason, indicated above, is that households are not the only sources of demand for water in this country.

There are competing sources of demand for water – agriculture, industry, water transport and energy production. Water is not just about household needs; the needs of farmers, manufacturers, energy generators and water transport operators need also to be taken into account. During droughts the water policymakers’ distribution balancing act is at its most difficult. For instances, an increase in the water allocation of households will be at the expense of farmers and energy producers.

The second reason for naming the proposed department the Department of Water and Marine Resources is that there are sources of water for the nation’s water consumers other than the current sources. Indeed, there are many other sources. Besides Laguna de Bay and the other major lakes, this country has more than 50 rivers that are considered economically significant. Sooner or later – probably sooner – serious efforts will have to be made by the government to harness these lakes and rivers for the nation’s varied water needs. A Department of Water that did not make provision for these other sources of water would make little sense.

A department and a bureau whose operations involve dealing with water issues are the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). To make the creation of a department overseeing the water sector a truly whole-of-government exercise, the DENR and BFAR functions and assets relating to water should be transferred to the proposed department.

Since they will both de dealing with marine resources, the Department of Water and Marine Resources and the Department of Transportation’s Marine Industry Authority (MARINA) will have to have a clear understanding of each other’s responsibilities and will have to operate on the basis of utmost cooperation.

For the above reasons, the proposed department should be a Department of Water and Marine Resources. Water security being one of the requirements of the Philippine economy’s future development and growth, it should be a powerful department. Otherwise, the people of this country will continue to experience the present uncoordinated and inefficient handling of water-related issues.

(llagasjessa@yahoo.com)