Paper on Philippine water sector identifies critical situations; presents models for water service provision
The authors of the paper ‘Treading Troubled Waters’ speak of the critical situations faced by the water sector on the strength of a process that involved partnerships, network of academic institutions, peoples and non-government organizations, and local communities. This process undertaken through the Development Roundtable Series (DRTS) program initiated and anchored by Focus on the Global South-Philippines, involved consultations, roundtable discussion, research and case studies across the country. These activities have produced both anecdotal information and hard data from the field and existing documents.
‘Treading Troubled Waters’ by the DRTS Thematic Working Group on Water identifies several critical challenges faced by the water sector that includes government, communities, public utilities, regulators, civil society and academe. The paper points to the failure to have coherence and integration in government’s policy orientation, one consequence of which a Mining Act passed in 1995 that had since undermined the ‘entitlement of local communities’ and progressively caused Philippine communities’ ‘loss of access to traditional water sources’. Anecdotal experiences from the central (Visayas) and southern regions (Mindanao) have a common story to tell: that mining companies have been ‘encroaching on their watershed areas and affecting not only water supply or access…but also (water) quality.’
Uneven access, the presence of a large number of waterless areas throughout the Philippines and poorly-resourced small water systems - this last one resulting on overpricing and corruption - have been identified as well as key and interrelated situations.
Underscored as well, and pertaining to primarily to governmental role and function, are the vulnerability to privatization of public utilities and fragmented and weak regulatory system. Meanwhile, the lack of recognition of small water services providers as key actors/agents filling the huge gaps in water service/provision is not at all helping address these critical challenges.
Another strength of the paper, as well as the process that paved the way for this integrative paper, can be found in the recommendations. The discussions do not stop at identifying problems, but point also to ways for moving the results of the process toward policy reforms and other forms of action.
On top of calls to action addressing government, such as the ratification of the United Nations Resolution on the Right to Water and Sanitation, strengthening of the role of the National Water Resources Board as main regulator and improvement in management information systems, the paper also presents case studies that serve as ‘innovative models’ for providing water and managing water resources that are already being practiced by different groups and communities. Such cases lessen government’s room for making excuses for not doing its job; for these on-the-ground models, government only needs to lend support to ensure their sustainability.
The report can be downloaded at: http://www.focusweb.org/content/treading-troubled-waters
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