Water is a Right, But What’s the Price?

A new report from the World Health Organization and UNICEF lands with the force of a global indictment: one in four people on Earth, 2.1 billion souls, still lack safely managed drinking water. The world, it declares, is catastrophically failing to meet its promise of universal access by 2030, a goal the report calls not just a technical challenge, but a “moral imperative.”

For most, this is a distant headline. For Metro Iloilo, it is the story of our lives.

Our water crisis is a perfect, painful microcosm of this global dilemma. For generations, we have lived with the consequences of a public system that was left to decay. The story of our nearly century-old network of aging pipes and intermittent supply is a textbook case of the chronic underinvestment that forces communities to a breaking point.

Into this crisis of public stewardship have stepped two private giants: Metro Pacific, investing PHP 4.2 billion to overhaul the distribution network it inherited, and now Aboitiz, securing a PHP 5.1 billion contract to supply the bulk water. They speak the language of modern solutions—of “future-ready” infrastructure and “long-term partnerships.” They are, by all accounts, doing the work that government failed to do for decades.

But this is where Iloilo’s story becomes a crucial test case for a world grappling with how to deliver a human right. While corporations speak of investment returns and necessary “tariff adjustments,” the WHO report speaks of equity, marginalization, and rights. Can these two languages ever align?

This is now a practical, daily reality. With nearly PHP 10 billion in private capital now committed to our water system, those costs will inevitably flow down to the consumer’s tap. The core conflict is now laid bare: can a for-profit model, driven by shareholder obligations, truly serve the mother who must choose between water and food? The WHO report warns that in the quest for progress, it is always the poorest and most marginalized who are left behind.

The success of this new era for Iloilo’s water will not be measured by stronger water pressure in our subdivisions or by corporate bottom lines. It will be measured by its impact on the most vulnerable. It will be judged on whether a family in a remote barangay or an informal settlement can afford this new, “improved” water, or if they will be priced out of a fundamental human right.

Our public officials and regulators, particularly the Metro Iloilo Water District, now have a profound duty. Their role is no longer just to facilitate contracts but to act as vigilant, fierce guardians of public interest. They must ensure that “efficiency” does not come at the cost of equity. The world may not know it is watching Metro Iloilo, but it is. We are now a live experiment in one of the most urgent questions of our time: can you put a price on a human right without selling out the poor?