Plenty of water but not enough-3

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

There is foresight in the convention of the summit on the water resources of the province. Indeed, the study of the potable water situation has been neglected I think because people see a lot of water draining out into the sea. Last Friday, Bacolod, and I think other areas of the province, was inundated in a sudden downpour. A lot of water, but none to drink.

Former solon Alfredo Benitez who is now the economic development and investment consultant of the province, was reported to be the one who proposed the holding of a Negros water summit, arguing that before the water problem in the entire province gets worse, we hope to address it.

Benitez said that through the summit being participated by representatives of the water districts in the towns and cities in the province they hope to come up with a roadmap and plans to address some water problems.

“It will get worse and complicated if we don’t address them so hopefully we could also come up with a better resource management,” he added and emphasized that the province is rapidly urbanizing. Indeed, Bacolod’s skyline alone is changing, but the construction of bigger commercial edifices is also taking place in the towns and cities of the province.

He cited statistics. He said in 2016, 61 percent of the 2.5 million population of the province live in urban areas and that water infrastructure has been unable to meet the growing demand. In 2018, only 37.2 percent of households have level 3 water supply. The 17 operational water districts in the province reported 26.81 percent on non-revenue water (NRW) or losses from leaks of pilferage. High NRW levels prevent water utilities from recovering their investments and generate income that should be used to improve infrastructure and expand service delivery.

Well, at least that is not so terrible as the NRW situation in Bacolod, still that is no consolation.

He urged that “we have to get our acts together to promote water efficiency and conservation” because our water supply is increasingly (being) threatened by unregulated economic activity. He cited that among these unregulated activities are the extraction of forest resources, conversion of forest to agricultural land and that growth of human settlements have caused massive deforestation in the main watersheds of the province.

He called on government authorities, the private sector and civil society to come together to institute reforms and investments to build adequate water infrastructure and ensure social and environmental protection.

Who else can take the lead in this campaign but the provincial government? He proposed the creation of a Provincial Water Council that will give the direction on the “gaps and shortfalls” of other national and local agencies, in respect to water management.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the other agencies under it are mandated by law for this purpose but Benitez admits that the DENR does not have enough funds, manpower and capacity to fully address water concerns. That has been clear enough for a long time; in fact, the main player in the protection of forest and natural water sources since the 1990s is the province.

If the provincial government must get into the act in a more active and larger role, then this must be secured so that the program will have clearly delineated responsibility and continuity. Ningas cogon is a bad habit of governments.

The role of the private sector must also be specified. Many private initiatives had been sporadic. How many thousands of seedlings had been planted by this and that organization that have withered and wasted for lack maintenance?

The water confab is a first step. We will wait what will happen. I hope that from the closing to the summit to the formulation of implementable plans will not be for long.

Negros has plenty of water gushing out of the forests and springs but there is not enough for households and commerce because there are factors that nature cannot control and that is human weakness – corruption, politics and pure sloth.

What is good with the Water Summit is that provincial officials, and we hope other local governments, are looking at our natural resource with a new eye. In fact, almost everybody knows the problem and many solutions had been presented on the past, but the same problems identified about 20 years ago remain.