Water

Pilot and Demonstration Activities
Sustainable Water Integrated Management and Governance for Baguio City

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Basic Information

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Background and Rationale

Freshwater is a common good, an ecological foundation of life, a finite resource, and a shared common asset. On top of this, access to potable freshwater is a basic right. With urbanization, water governance has become a need to cope with increasing demands for steady supply and access to potable water, both for the immediate and long term. A twin responsibility of urbanized areas is managing water demand and sustaining investments in water infrastructure through viable cost-recovery schemes.

In the Philippines, national institutions usually manage water supply and sanitation. However, local governments still lack the ability to ensure efficient and sustained delivery of basic water services.

This proposed PDA will focus its institutional development interventions in Baguio City, Philippines.¹

The city faces problems with unaccounted for water aggravated by the growth of small-scale water suppliers and settlements along watershed areas and presence of minerals that affect water quality.

Attempts at charting directions and investments to efficiently manager the water resources in Baguio City have been initiated. In the regional and provincial plan documents, the role of Baguio City is to protect and preserve watersheds within its territorial jurisdiction. In a separate report containing the urban plan for Baguio, water issues were sketched under the infrastructure component that tackled water supply, surface water sewerage, sanitation, sewerage and sewage disposal.

This PDA hopes to enable Baguio city to shift from fragmented to integrated local water agenda and action, to be catalyzed by an integrated management scheme at the local government level. Specific targets for capacity-building are the city planning and development office as a coordinating and management office of the city government, and the public utilities sector office that manages the water treatment facility.

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Objectives

General

Strengthen the city government's mechanism for integrating efforts, coordinating and managing water resources and related water operations in the city, and driving the different sectors involved to treat water resource in an integrated manner.

Specific

• Strengthen the institutional role and capacity of the City Planning and Development Office to

1. convene and coordinate mandates and actions of key sectors involved in water resource management, regulatory mechanisms, and water supply and use
2. manage information and track various internal and external interventions and investment options for water resource management

• Enable the Public Utilities Sector Office of the city government to craft and carry out a cost-recovery plan for its existing water treatment facility financed by a JICA grant

• Raise stakeholder awareness within the city government towards an integrated management of water resources, and scale-up the lessons learned from this project

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Expected Results

Outputs:

• An Integrated Medium-Term Local Water Operational Plan and Investment Priorities of Baguio City

1. A checklist of interventions and studies/plan documents
2. A Water Situationer containing a validated summary of gaps and problems by key stakeholders, based also on existing studies/reports
3. A description of ongoing interventions and funded projects in the pipeline
4. A Local Water Operational Action Plan and a Ranking of Priorities
5. A list of roles and responsibilities of core sectors accepted by the offices involved
6. A coordination and monitoring scheme that would strengthen the accountability of involved sectors
7. Sub-committees organized that would set the agendas in motion
8. A reporting and communication mechanism

• A Cost-Recovery/Sustainability Plan for the City's Water Treatment Facility

• Information and Communication Materials that Capture the Lessons Learned from the Project

1. 1 Case description
2. regular updates/2 progress reports
3. 3 reports to ADB (1 inception report during the 1st month containing a detailed workplan, a mid-term report, and a terminal report)

Outcomes

• An institutional mechanism at work in implementing the activities set out in this proposal
• A water information tracking system based at the city planning and development office
• Better coordination among sectors involved in water management
• Increased number of partners
• Increased awareness among actors involved leading to improved water accountability and stakeholdership
• A Medium-Term Development and Investment Plan Adopted by the City Council

Impacts

• A functional Integrated Institutional Mechanism for Coordination and Partnership-Building based at the City Planning and Development Office
• Improved regulatory and executive mechanisms to manage water resources
• Increased stakeholder buy-in/Better coordination among sectors involved in water management
• cost-recovery plan for water treatment implemented
• rationale matching of investments with priorities for water management
• internal and external resources mobilized to address problems in water resource management

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Measurable Performance Indicators

• Number of partners gained
• An organizational structure with clear roles and responsibilities
• Documents (cost-recovery plan, water action plan)
• Case outline
• Periodic reports

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Scope for Replication in Other DMCs

ICLEI has the infrastructure to disseminate the outcomes of this proposed project through its members in the Philippines. To date, ICLEI has 15 participating local governments that are repositories of the lessons that will be drawn from this project. In addition to this, ICLEI has linkages with the League of Cities of the Philippines that has 115 members. The League holds workshop periodically and the city of Baguio could present the case in one of the workshops on environment and/or basic services. ICLEI's website devoted to the Water Campaign and compilation of water governance cases are avenues for dissemination and replication. ICLEI's Office in Manila will also actively provide feedback to DILG's Water Supply Unit, ADB, and the Philippine Water Partnership.

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Reports and Related Documents

• Baguio City to develop own water resources
• Sustainable Water Integrated Management Background and Update (September 2004 - January 2005)
• Progress Report: Sustainable Water Integrated Management for Baguio [PDF] (December 2004)
• Proposal submitted [PDF]

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