WITH a population of more than 100 million, the Philippines is faced with the challenge of ensuring water security.
Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) Administrator Reynaldo V. Velasco, underscoring the need to protect the country’s freshwater source, recently unveiled the plan to address this challenge at forum led by Finex Research and Development Foundation Inc. at a hotel in Makati City recently.
Primarily mandated by Republic Act 6234, the MWSS is tasked to ensure the proper operation and maintenance of waterworks system to ensure an uninterrupted and adequate supply and distribution of potable water for domestic and other purposes, and the proper operation and maintenance of sewerage systems in its service area, which includes the whole of Metro Manila and parts of Cavite and Rizal.
Environmental protection
According to Velasco, the MWSS shall vigorously partner with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), local government units (LGUs), business and civic organizations to conserve and use water, as well as protect the environment.
He said the MWSS is eyeing six major watersheds that need protection—the Umiray, Angat, Ipo, La Mesa, Marikina and Laguna de Bay—which are currently managed by different government agencies. Velasco added that in the long term, an integrated watershed management plan should be implemented to sustain the care and protection of these watersheds, including the rivers and arterial channels.
“The protection of these watersheds is important as their environmental conditions directly impinge on the quality and amount of potable water supply to our constituents,” he said.
Lucrative business
Appearing for the first time before members of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (Finex) since he assumed his MWSS post in February, Velasco shared the agency’s programs for water sustainability.
Velasco said, water, being an essential human need and service, is also a lucrative business venture given the successful legal framework for public-private partnership (PPP) put in place in August 1997 during the administration of then-President Fidel V. Ramos.
This can be gleaned through the income figures in the last 20 years since the MWSS started implementing PPP, he said, citing the gains of MWSS’s private water contractors—Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Co. Inc.
“The income figures would not lie and you can just ask Mr. Ferdz de la Cruz and Mr. Mon Fernandez on their secrets of success in managing Manila Water and Maynilad in the last 20 years since the MWSS was put into a PPP,” he added.
The multibillion-peso bottled-water industry, where top corporations and malls all over the Philippines have joined the lucrative business, are also proof of the water sector’s huge business potential. Another mushrooming water business, he said, is the water-refilling stations all over the country.
Water sustainability
For Velasco, water sustainability means there should be enough and available water not only for the present generation but also for future generations.
He underscored the fact that one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations is to “ensure availability and sustainability in the management of water and sanitation for all”.
He cited the 2016 Asian Water Development Outlook of the Asian Development Bank, which states that by 2050, more than 60 percent of the Asia and Pacific region’s population will be living in cities.
“The overall urban water-security score takes into consideration the fundamental requirements of a livable city—water supply, wastewater collection, flood management [drainage] and river health,” he said.
The Philippines has a National Water Security score of 40.4 out of 100, which means that much needs to be done for the country to become water secure, he added.
Privatization
In 1997 Velasco noted that the MWSS privatization highlights the Ramos administration’s strategy to address the looming water crisis.
In the Ramos Peace and Development Foundation 15th year commemorative book launched on April 21, an event hosted by the MWSS, he noted the book’s chapter on environment and sustainable development, which are the salient features of water privatization.
During the early years of the Ramos administration, Velasco noted the generally poor water-service coverage all over Metro Manila, with around 53 percent only of the service area.
The unaccounted water, meanwhile, is around 63 percent. There was also inefficient service with low water pressure and limited water availability. Water situation was also characterized by high nonwater revenue and minimal sewerage coverage.
To address the problem, Ramos signed two laws—Republic Act (RA) 8041, or the National Water Crisis Act and Executive Order (EO) 311 on March 20, 1996.
RA 8041 aimed to address the nationwide water crisis, which adversely affects the health and well-being of the population, food production and industrialization.
On the other hand, EO 311 encouraged private sector participation in the operations and facilities of the MWSS.
The reorganization of the MWSS, which followed the signing of the two laws, meanwhile, addressed issues relevant to supply distribution, anti-water pilferage and finance privatization of the water sector.
In August 1997 the Ramos administration entered into a 25-year concession agreement with two private consortia comprised of international and local partners, shifting the operational responsibilities of MWSS to Maynilad Water Services Inc., for the West Zone, and Manila Water Co. Inc. for the East Zone of Metropolitan Manila and nearby provinces.
‘Master stroke’
The MWSS privatization, Velasco said, is the former President’s “master stroke of a genius”.
Among its positive results was the expansion of serviced area, which now stands at 96 percent, as well as reduced unaccounted for water at 13 percent by Manila Water and 32 percent by Maynilad.
“One important aspect and enduring effect of the successful legal framework of the PPP between MWSS and the concessionaires, is that these two water partners have shared their best practices to other parts of the country and also our Asean neighbors, like Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia and Cambodia,” Velasco said.
He added that it is for such reasons that he is pushing to redraft the agreements with the provisions that MWSS must have at least a royalty on the PPP legal framework, much like a franchise.
Safe water for all
In the next five years, Velasco is bent on ensuring affordable and safe water for 20 million consumers in Metro Manila and nearby provinces of Rizal, Cavite and Bulacan.
“Our mission at MWSS is to work for the well-being of our consumers notably on water supply for each person that must always be sufficient, safe and continuous for personal and domestic uses,” he added.
While pursuing fairness for water consumers, Velasco said the MWSS would respect its concessionaire agreements with Manila Water and Maynilad, and its latest partner, the Bulacan Bulk Water.
Velasco said the Annual MWSS Million Tree Challenge, aimed at planting 1 million trees a year over the next five years in the watershed areas, would be launched. He urged Finex Foundation to participate in the project to protect the country’s watersheds.
Sustainability
With the MWSS under his helm during the Duterte administration, Velasco said the agency would pursue water sustainability.
He said MWSS sources 95.6 percent of its total water supply from the Angat and Umiray Rivers, and 4 percent from Laguna Lake. The remaining supply, 0.4 percent, comes from groundwater sources.
The Bulacan Bulk Water Supply Project of the MWSS, in partnership with the San Miguel Corp.’s Luzon Clean Water Development Corp. and K-Water, for the supply of treated bulk water to the entire Bulacan province through its water districts, aims to ensure sustainable water supply for the province.
Bulacan hosts the Angat Dam, which supplies Metro Manila and other nearby provinces with clean drinking water.
While the Angat Reservoir has a sufficient capacity to cover the water requirement of the current population, the water supply for Metro Manila must be secured through additional water sources.
“MWSS needs to reduce its dependency on the Angat Dam, especially when the Big One, or a 7.2 [-magnitude]earthquake, strikes or when major disasters occur, including potential threats from terrorists,” he said.
Future projects
“Together with the new MWSS board of trustees under the administration of President Duterte, we will deliver the needed dam projects that were long-started and stalled during the Ramos presidency to ensure adequate, safe, potable, affordable and sustainable water supply for Metro Manila and the adjoining provinces serviced by MWSS,” he added.
Velasco said he is pursuing the approval and implementation of new water-source projects, like the Kaliwa and Laiban dams, with the National Economic and Development Authority, through Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia, and the Department of Finance, through Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III.
“We have the opportune time under this administration to push for the Laiban and Kaliwa flagship dam projects that will include the possible rehabilitation of the Wawa Dam. Putting these all together in place will result in additional combined 2,400 MLD [millions of liters per day] to complement the 4,000 MLD from Angat Dam,” he said.
With such projects, Velasco said the MWSS would ensure adequate, steady and sustainable water supply for water consumers in Metro Manila and adjoining provinces in the next 25 to 50 years.
2 comments
Kung mabagal ang delivery ng sahod ng mga Bantay-Gubat e expect na mabagal ding kumilos ang mga katutubong enforcer natin sa Ipo watershed dahil 5 months ng delayed dahil mas uunahin nilang mga Bantay-Gubat ang pagkain ng kanilang pamilya. Simpleng logistics na kaya namang ayusin ng mga taong nakaupo lang sa opisina ng MWSS na naka aircon e hindi nila agad ayusin ang pasahod siguro dahil hindi pa nila nararamdamang magutom talaga kaya hindi ramdam ang damdamin ng mga mahihirap sa kabundukan.
The La Mesa Dam watershed right now is being invaded by human settlement. Informal houses and developer houses are threathening the lush vegetation of the watershed. The Gov’t should guard this watershed closely.