A Policy Brief on the Philippine Water Sector

The policy brief was developed to understand the current situation and challenges in ensuring water security at the Philippines. in the last part of the report, several recommendation were provided.

The Philippine water sector is much larger and more complex than often portrayed. It has been observed that the national policy debate surrounding water has, over the years, revolved mainly around the municipal water supply and sanitation/sewerage (WSS) sub-sector. This dominant position of the WSS sub-sector in Philippine water policy is easy to explain. It deals with water as a basic necessity of life – globally accepted as a basic human right – and has received legitimacy through its inclusion among the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and  the  Medium-Term  Philippine  Development Goals of the country.

However, the Water Sector is much larger than the WSS sub-sector.  As such, it is important to  first  broaden  the  discussion  and  raise  it to  a  more  strategic  level  that  will  allow  us to  appreciate  the  interconnectedness  of  the sector  as  a  whole  and  how  issues  across  that  various  uses  of  water  (agriculture,  industry, household,  recreation,  transportation,  power generation, and environment) are interrelated. This interconnectedness highlights the demand for more integrated solutions rather than the piecemeal fixes we see today.

In the face of accelerated climate change and the increasing pressure on existing water supplies to support the continuously growing needs of modern society, water security has become a major policy objective both locally and globally. To get to being water secure, much needs to be done in terms of  governance,  institutional  arrangements,  and infrastructure – both hard and soft – and this policy paper seeks to be able to extract fundamental issues besetting the sector today in hope of offering clear, actionable, and measurable interventions that will get the country moving towards water security for generations to come.

To this end, this policy brief shall provide a general situationer and analysis of the current state of the water sector in the country today, drawing upon a mixture of secondary desktop research and inputs gathered from a roundtable discussion  organized  by  The ArangkadaPhilippines  Project.  From  this  context,  the hope is to be able to lay down a list of policy recommendations, which the government can pursue  over  the  short-,  medium-,  and  long-term to ensure the country is moving towards increased water security.

 

Find the full report here.