A water department, anyone?

IT’S IN THE news that the House of Representatives has already passed their version of the proposed Department of Water Resources ( DWR), and it is now up to the Senate to pass their own version.

I have mixed feelings about this proposal because it could either have a good or bad outcome, and let me tell you why.

On the good side, having a DWR could give us the opportunity to once and for all i ntegrate and coordinate all of our water needs, among them for irrigation, manufacturing and for household or residential use.

However, on the bad side, it could add another layer of bureaucracy that could either slow down the whole process, or result in a tangled web.

I think the idea about creating a DWR is to put all water related agencies and functions under one department, so that they could all “play music” together under one “conductor”. While that is truly a desirable outcome, it would sound more realistic if the agencies and functions are already talking to each other now, but it seems that they are not.

Just to cite some examples, the government has not been too successful in laws pertaining to rainwater collection, water i mpounding ponds and river cleanups. Simply put, there could be lesser flood water if rainwater is collected properly, and flood water could easily flow into the water impounding pounds.

And of course, the cleaner the river, the cleaner the water there would be to filter.

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METRO MANILA FLOOD PROBLEMS

I t h i n k t h e c o m m o n understanding in Metro Manila is that local floods are the problems of the local government units (LGUs), but it becomes the problems of the Department of Public Works and Highways ( DPWH) if the floods cross the jurisdiction of two or more localities.

That is probably a fair understanding, even if it is always given that flood waters know no boundaries and they do cross multiple jurisdictions.

And where does the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) get into the picture?

Apparently, the common understanding in Metro Manila is that the MM DA is mainly responsible only for solving the problems about garbage and traffic, but not the problems about the floods. That appears to be the wrong understanding, because both garbage and floods could cause traffic, and somehow these three problems are intertwined.

As its name suggests, the MMDA is supposed to be a “development authority” that should not focus only on short term problems, but they should also look long term because of their planning function, and to me, that is what “development” actually means.

To be more specific, the MMDA should focus more on “sustainable development”, “sustainable” being the operative word. It appears that the problem of floods in Metro Manila is a political problem, rather than a technical problem.

If only the local mayors could put aside their political agendas, more technical solutions could be implemented. We are not lacking in technical experts who could help./