Title: A WinWin Water Management Approach in the Philippines
1A Win-Win Water Management Approach in the
Philippines
- Towards A Watershed-Based Water Resources
Management
2The Myth
- The annual water use accounts for only 12 of
available supply in the Philippines - This figure tends to suggest that the need to
manage water use and conserve water resources is
not a pressing concern
3The Reality
- Declining per capita water availability
- The data on aggregate availability indicate only
the average supply per capita per year, without
regard to the distribution of available supply - The Philippine freshwater ecosystem faces severe
problems of pollution - The costs of supplying potable water are rising
4Causes of Water Scarcity
- Water availability limitations
- Depletion of groundwater resources
- Degradation of freshwater sources
- The increasing cost of new water source
development
5Addressing Water Scarcity Problem
- Managing water supply
- Managing water demand
- Establishing supportive social, legal, and
institutional support for effective water
management system
6Key Requirements
- A holistic analysis of the water supply situation
- Look at the water issue in an ecosystem
settingspecifically that of a watershed unit - Treat water as an economic good
- Allow markets to allocate water to competing
uses, while recognizing the role of the
government to protect the interest of targeted
social groups in society - Social, legal, and institutional support systems
7Why a Watershed Approach to Water Resources
Management?
- Environmental impacts of land-use activities,
water uses and other upland disturbances can
readily be examined within the watershed context - The watershed approach has strong economic logic
- Many of the externalities involved with
alternative land management practices affecting
water supply and quality are internalized when
the watershed is managed as a unit - The watershed provides a framework for analyzing
the effects of human interactions with the
environment - The environmental impacts within the watershed
operate as a feed back loop for changes in the
social system
8Failure to Implement a Watershed Approach
- Watershed management has long been an element of
natural resources planning and management by the
DENR in the country - However, this approach has been largely limited
to the upper watersheds where the forests lie - The link between the upper watershed and the
downstream water resources has not really been
tackled in the context of a watershed unit
9The main problems in the water governance sector
- The failure to implement the laws governing
watershed approach - The absence of institutional mechanisms to
operationalize said approach - The lack of appreciation of water as an economic
goodhence, the inability to allow market-based
mechanisms to function - The lack of mechanisms that will integrate water
and watershed plans and programs of various
agencies
10Multiplicity of Water Agencies
- Weaken efforts to manage the water resources and
their ecosystems and watersheds - Coordination is not easy since these agencies
belong to different executive departments - This is not supportive of a holistic approach to
water resources management
11Lack of Legal Basis (Prior to the Clean Water Act)
- Different agencies with separately vested powers
over water and watershed management - There was no institutional leader that has the
overbearing power and budget to govern water
resources management in the country - Gaps in policies and coordination at the national
level constrain the full implementation of the
watershed approach in natural resource management
12Problems at the Local Level
- Local water districts have no direct jurisdiction
over the watersheds supporting their water supply
- The Local Government Code of 1991 stipulates that
LGUs should be responsible in protecting
watersheds. - But this Code is also not yet put into full
swingsince, control over the countrys natural
resources is still taken over by the DENR
13Some Initial Steps Towards Cooperation
- The DENR has launched several initiatives (e.g.
ECOGOVERNANCE Project, GOLD project) to train LGU
in natural resource management - Some watersheds are now managed by LGU under
co-management agreements with the DENR - Certain watersheds are also under the control of
a number of agencies who are dependent on
watershed resources such as NAPOCOR and NIA - The IPRA states that indigenous communities are
to be administrators of the country's watersheds
within their domains
14Elements of a Watershed-Based Water Resource
Management
- A biophysical frameworka watershed-based water
resource management strategy - A legal-institutional frameworkto provide the
legal basis and supporting institutions to
implement the proposed water resource management
strategy - An economic frameworkled by economic efficiency
consideration - A socio-political frameworkdefined by the need
to have wide support from local communities and
political/government units
15(No Transcript)
16Watershed-Based Water Resources Planning
- The current water policy paradigm in the
Philippines is for a river basin water resource
planning - This paradigm is consistent with the watershed
approach - But the river basin as a planning unit is too big
to be manageable - What is needed is to define a watershed unit that
a given group of administrative units could
manage together in a co-management scheme
17Legal and Institutional Framework
- What is needed is an institutional body that will
govern the watershed unitfor its water resources
and other environmental services - Since the watershed transcends administrative
unitthe need to have watershed council or
authority seems to be the move in the right
direction to bring about a truly watershed-based
water resource planning and implementation
18Economic Efficiency and Water Policy
- Allow water to flow where their value in use is
highest - Charge water price at full cost and define
clearly the property rights to water use/access - Increase the efficiency of water use by
introducing market-based instruments - Examples of said instruments are water charges,
water markets, and imposing effluent charges - These instruments could play an important role in
stimulating efficient use of water in the country
19Local Community Support and Strong Local
Government Commitment
- Obtain wide support from the local community vis
à vis the local governments and civil societies
in water management - The local communities are the frontline consumers
of environmental good and bad resulting from
water resource rehabilitation or degradation - It is in their best interest to be directly
involved in how this resource is to be managed - They should be made partners in such an endeavor
and must received training to enhance their
capacity to perform this role
20The Clean Water Act of 2004
- Recognizes the participation of LGUs in the
management and improvement of water quality in
their respective jurisdictions - Provides for citizen action in pursuing suits
against violators of the bills provisions as
well as in the conduct of information and
education campaign - Does not propose for the creation of a new water
body instead, it assigns the lead function to
the DENR - Implementing rules and regulations can be crafted
to clearly provide for the implementation of a
watershed-based approach
21Proposed Policy Statements in the IRR
- To adopt an integrated, holistic approach in
addressing the inherently interrelated issues of
water supply planning and operation, demand
management, pollution control, and watershed and
ground water protection - To manage water not only as a social good but
more importantly as an economic good. As such,
water becomes a commodity that is assessed for
its scarcity value and whose distribution exists
in the context of market processes, even as it is
balanced by the view that water is a basic need
22Proposed Policy Statements in the IRR
- To adopt a water-pricing policy that covers the
full economic cost of water production and
distribution, by taking into account the
opportunity cost of water where there are
competing users, and the cost of externalities or
negative environmental impacts - To uphold the principles associated with a
watershed-based approach by considering the
watershed as the basic unit in managing the water
resources of the country
23Proposed Administrative Mechanisms to Implement
the Strategies
- Emphasize that this should be operationalized
along watershed boundaries or river basins - There should be support for the
institutionalization of local water bodies such
as River-basin or Watershed-based Authorities,
following the LLDA model - The Governing Boards should be supported by a
technical secretariat which include an expert in
Watershed Management
24Proposed Financial Mechanisms
- Use market-based instruments in assessing the
true value of water that would be levied on
users, as well as water-related services or
damages. - May include raising water tariffs and imposing
sewerage charges and effluent taxes. - A socialized system for water-use fees can be
adopted to balance the market-based value with
the social nature of water as a public good. - Set a threshold value below which water is
provided free of charge, then above which water
use is progressively valued
25Proposed Financial Mechanisms
- Insure that a big portion of the water use fees
should be used for Watershed Rehabilitation and
other restorative mechanisms (e.g. reforestation,
vegetative and engineering measures to
control/minimize erosion and siltation) to
enhance the quality of water discharged from
natural sources. - This amount should be clearly itemized, and
earmarked in the relevant budget allocation
process
26Proposed Action at the Local Level
- LGUs (Province, City, Municipality, Barangay)
should also be empowered to establish
regional/local bodies such as water councils and
river basin authorities - These bodies do not necessarily require national
level legislation but may require inter-LGU
legislative action, particularly when watersheds
cover different municipalities/cities from
different provinces - These bodies may vary in character, charter, or
nature. In fact, some of them may even be in the
nature of cooperatives or NGO networks, or
para-statals
27Enabling Role of National Bodies
- To support this local level action, the job of
the DENR should include a function of advocacy
and capacity building - To create awareness among local players on the
possibility for such local institution-building
programs - To capacitate them not only to build such
institutions but also to be trained in the
technical aspects such as the various
facets/features of the watershed approach
28 Enabling Role of National Bodies
- The DENR should monitor and evaluate these local
water bodies - This should not, however, stop local actors from
collectively making action that would induce
Congress to strengthen, through legislative
recognition, the local structures. - Examples of this would include the mobilization
moves that led to the creation of the Palawan
Council for Sustainable Development and the
current efforts to enact a law that would create
a Davao River Authority.
29Thank You!