3 bills to save rainwater saved from last Congress

WHEN the rains started falling last June, everyone welcomed them, especially the residents of eastern Metro Manila who had been through several waterless weeks after the level at Angat Dam fell below normal and the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) reduced the supply to Manila Water.

We hoped then that the many plans to save rainwater for use in the hot summer season would not be forgotten. For while we have this annual problem of water shortage, we also have the annual deluge that follows it, causing floods, destroying harvests, jamming city traffic, and damaging infrastructures of all kinds. The same rains causing the damage could very well be saved for use when summer is upon us and many household faucets run dry.

Last week, we welcomed the news that those plans developed at the height of the dry season have not all been forgotten. Three bills to save rainwater were approved Wednesday by the House Committee on Metro Manila Development, headed by Manila Rep. Manny Lopez.

The three bills – filed by Lopez, fellow Manila Rep. Servo Nieto, Quezon City Reps. Allan Reyes and Kit Belmonte -- had actually been approved by the House in the last -- the 17th -- Congress but failed to get enacted into law. They have now been saved and await counterpart measures from the Senate in this 18th Congress.

The three House bills require every new institutional, commercial, and residential development project in the National Capital Region to establish a rainwater harvesting facility, to save water for use in households during times of drought.

The three House bills, however, will start helping the situation only after the construction of new projects, which may take months and years. There are other projects that will take longer, such as harnessing the Wawa Dam to add its resources to the current water supply system for Metro Manila. There is also the proposed Kaliwa Dam, but that may take even longer due to standing opposition to its construction.

We need more immediate action plans, which must be in place before the next drought season which will come in March next year. That will be a real challenge for our government agencies, particularly the MWSS.

In the meantime, we welcome the efforts of our congressmen who were able to save House bills 4111, 4124, and 4698 from being lost among the many measures that failed to make it in the last Congress.