Large decrease in nat’l water stock seen in 2015

MANILA, Philippines — A significant decrease in the country’s water stock was recorded in 2015 as the agriculture sector and households demanded the most use of the resource, the Philippine Statistics Authority said in a report.

Its Asset Accounts for Surface Water and Soil Water released recently showed that the stock of surface and soil water in the country declined 20.4 percent in 2015.

In the beginning of 2015, the stock of water was placed at 94.6 billion cubic meters (BCM), declining to 75.3 BCM at the end of the same year.

The largest reduction in stock was attributed to abstraction of water – extraction from natural source – as input to economic activities. This was equivalent to 46,279 million cubic meters (MCM) of water either used by the abstracting unit or collected and then distributed to other economic units.

Out of the total abstracted volume, the bulk – 43.7 MCM – was used by the abstracting units, while the remainder was distributed by water concessionaires and local water districts to other industries and to households.

“The largest share of water abstracted for own use went to the agriculture sector, while households received the largest amount of distributed water,” PSA said.

During the reference period, not all water abstracted reached the intended users for final consumption as 677 MCM was lost in the distribution process. 

The report was based on data collected from various water agencies such as the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA), National Water Resources Board (NWRB), National Irrigation Administration (NIA), National Power Corp. (NPC), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCAARRD).

PSA said the asset and flow accounts for water resources follow the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) 2012 Central Framework.

According to SEEA, there are three main types of water resources: surface water, groundwater and soil water.

At present, there are no available data on the stocks of groundwater hence, the opening and closing stocks cover only surface water and soil water.

Stocks of water in rivers and streams are not yet obtained and thus, surface water in this compilation includes only artificial reservoirs, lakes and fishponds.