BBM was perhaps just trying to be dramatic when he urged the people to secure water pails or balde to prepare for the long dry spell of a Super El Niño. But he unconsciously revealed the hopelessness of our situation whose blame should be shared by past presidents including his late father.
We have never given water its critical importance in sustaining our lives. The NCR is 90 percent dependent on one dam that sits on top of an active fault line. We have become used to seeing people lining up their water pails in public faucets for their daily needs, even in NCR.
BBM is delivering the right message for us to be more judicious in the use of water because every drop counts. But it also implies that we are in a horrible situation because our government has not given the construction of water storage and other facilities the priority deserved.
Singapore is a good example. Because their population depends on fresh water being delivered by pipeline from Malaysia, their government worked hard to reduce this vulnerability.
Singapore has a strategic master plan that aims to transition the country into absolute water self-sufficiency before its final 1962 bilateral water agreement with Malaysia expires in 2061.
The Singapore water plan seeks to maximize domestic collection and technology to phase out the reliance on imports.
First, Singapore catches rainwater through a highly sophisticated network of drains, canals and rivers leading into 17 domestic reservoirs. Two-thirds of Singapore’s land surface serves as a massive water catchment area.
Second, under the 1962 agreement, Singapore can draw up to 250 million gallons of raw water per day from Malaysia’s Johor River. This historically accounted for about 50 percent of its total demand, but its percentage share is actively dropping as alternative taps expand.
Third is NEWater (High-Grade Reclaimed Water). Introduced in 2003, NEWater is ultra-clean, purified recycled wastewater. Sewage is collected across the island, treated using advanced dual-membrane (microfiltration and reverse osmosis) and ultraviolet technologies, and fed into the system. NEWater covers roughly 40 percent of Singapore’s daily water needs, with plans to increase coverage to 55 percent by 2060.
Fourth is desalination. Singapore utilizes seawater desalination to generate fresh water directly from the ocean. The country has built multiple high-capacity desalination plants, which currently satisfies up to 30 percent of its total water demand.
Aside from boosting supply, Singapore curtails demand to prolong its reserves through progressive, state-mandated strategies.
Singapore utilizes advanced sensor networks to identify pipeline leaks rapidly, preventing wastage before water ever reaches the tap.
They also impose strict household limits. Through public awareness campaigns, it targets an eight percent reduction in individual daily water consumption by 2030.
Here, we depend on private water concessionaires. The two concessionaires operating in NCR are carrying the brunt of needed capital expenditures to build an infrastructure that is currently ancient or not even existing.
Those in the provinces depend on water districts that in many cases contract the provision of water services to politically connected private companies that notoriously underperform and overcharge.
Our government has also allowed politically influential entities to damage our forests so that the ability of our mountain areas to store water has been severely compromised. As a result, we have flash floods that cause severe loss of lives and property every year.
Our government has also done nothing much to preserve our ground water resources. We are close to exhausting our groundwater which also results in land subsidence, an existential threat to safety, public health and economic stability specially in densely populated urban areas.
The reality is, there is nothing much BBM can do now to respond to the dry spell we face in the next few months beyond urging us to buy water pails. The infrastructure that could have helped us should have been built decades ago.
Also, the government agencies responsible for water management are scattered across different departments, making a comprehensive national program impossible.
Currently, water management is divided among over 30 separate government agencies-including the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), local water districts and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – leading to overlapping policies, delays and severe shortages.
There was a proposal to create a centralized Department of Water Resources (DWR). Under the proposed legislation, a dedicated Department of Water would consolidate the fractured responsibilities of the NWRB, DENR’s River Basin Control, the Department of Agriculture’s water units and local government units.
Instead of “scattershot” projects, the agency would oversee long-term development of master facilities — such as multi-use flood, storage and agricultural reservoirs — to trap heavy rainfall during typhoons and store it for periods of severe drought (El Niño).
A separate regulatory branch would oversee private providers and water concessionaires. A uniform regulatory commission would protect consumers from unjustified price shocks while holding utility companies legally and financially accountable for service interruptions.
The DWR would actively manage major river basins and vital watersheds. By acting as the primary enforcement authority of the Philippine Clean Water Act (RA 9275), the agency could levy harsh penalties against industries polluting primary freshwater reserves.
The creation of the department is a no-brainer but it is taking time in Congress. Then again, the creation of a needed department does not guarantee it will deliver as envisioned. We only have to look at the disappointing performance of the Department of Information and Communications Technology to keep our hopes down.
The creation of DWR was first proposed in 2019 by Rep. Joey Salceda. The concept was a national policy priority under BBM who formally integrated the DWR into his priority legislative agenda during his very first State of the Nation Address in July 2022.
But the bill has not moved and the Super El Niño is not waiting for us to get our act together. Balde-balde na lang muna.
Boo Chanco’s email address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on X @boochanco