Water for all: Where is the development framework?

partners under a hazy environment. thus, in past controversies over water tariff rate increases, payment of concession fees, inclusion of taxes in the charges levied on the consumers, weaknesses in water distribution and so on, the MWss, as the sentinel and monitor of the people, could not be heard. Its voice is stifled. Economists call this situation “regulatory capture.” the industry that is supposed to be regulated is the one doing the regulation.

Now another “water solution” is being announced in Congress—the creation of a Department of Water Resources (DWR). according to Congressman Joey salceda, there is a need to look at the water problem in a holistic manner and address every segment of the water system: generation, transmission, distribution and conservation.

Looking at the water crisis in a holistic manner, yes. Why not? But reducing the water issue by simply relating each segment to the other, from generation to conservation, tends to sideline the major unaddressed concerns of the consuming public and the Republic under the 1995 Water Crisis act, such as universal access to the water service, affordability, equity, transparency, sustainability, and yes, sovereignty. If the idea behind the proposed DWR is to copy the Epira, then something is terribly wrong. Epira, which paved the way for the privatization of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in a wholesale manner has failed to liberate the consuming public from high electricity prices, considered among the highest in asia and in the world.

thus, if DWR shall become another Epira, this can only mean that the country shall be subjected to tighter imperial rule of the big private corporations which have no qualms in haling the Republic to a foreign court in a foreign land.