Comparative Analysis of Water Sector Reforms
Tracking Progress in Asia and the Pacific
Phase 1- Assessing Water Sector Policies and Reforms - Country Briefs
Philippines
The Philippines is one of the countries in Asia that has long enacted a water law - the Water Code of the Philippines that was passed in 1976 and has since governed the ownership, appropriation, utilization, exploitation, development, conservation and protection of the country's water resources. The same law created the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) to administer and enforce the Water Code. The Code reflects the past efforts to bring a more holistic perspective and recent policies are generally supportive of an integrated approach to managing the country's water sector. The main challenge, however, has been to implement an integrated approach in a largely fragmented sector where more than thirty government institutions are involved either in water resource management or in service delivery.
In recent years, particularly after the enactment of the Local Government Code in 1991 which mandated the decentralization to local governments of major central government responsibilities, improving water governance in the country has been regarded as an urgent need.
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NATIONAL POLICIES AND REFORMS
Good progress has been made in undertaking comprehensive sector reviews and developing national policies and reforms. In 1994, the first National Water Summit was held which resulted in, among others, articulation of a water supply and sanitation policy and strategy within the purview of devolution as envisioned in the Local Government Code. In 1995, a Water Crisis Act was passed giving government special powers to reorganize sector agencies, induce greater private sector participation and improve the overall institutional environment. However, implementation of policy reforms to rationalize the sector in the context of devolution has been slow mainly because of the varying level of preparedness of local governments.
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WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Managing the country's water resources has been the mandate of NWRB and this has been done through the water rights system. Strengthening NWRB as part of the effort to strengthen water resource regulation has been vigorously pursued. Executive Order (EO) 123 was approved by the President in 2002 reconstituting the composition of the Board to include agencies that are non-claimant to the resource. There are two functioning river basin organizations: the Laguna Lake Development Authority and Agno Rover Basin Commission.
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IMPROVING WATER SERVICES
With responsibility for planning, financing and managing implementation of water supply now devolved to local governments, there is considerable challenge to make local government invest in water or at least include water in their development priorities, including the challenge to enforce rational tariff and subsidy policy. The Government has taken major steps to make financing more accessible to local governments. Furthermore, putting in place a regulatory framework is among the priority areas for reform to improve efficiency in water service delivery.
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CONSERVING WATER
Policies and guidelines to promote conservation are well in place. It is the enforcement of these policies which is seen as quite weak. Water service delivery is highly subsidized, and is therefore not providing incentive for conservation.
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PROMOTING REGIONAL COOPERATION
Philippines does not have a direct need to engage with other countries in terms of managing shared water resources. But in-country cooperation among water resources regions is one of the priority agenda particularly in certain parts of the country where scarcity of resource is a serious problem, e.g. Cebu City in the Central Visayas Region.
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FOSTERING PARTICIPATION; CAPACITY BUILDING; NETWORKING
The Philippines's experience with participatory irrigation has been showcased as one of the best practices. In the water supply sub-sector, community participation in planning, implementing, operating and managing community water systems has been exemplified through the formation of beneficiary associations. Capacity building has, however, been quite limited to projects funded from external donors.
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