The government is relying on a newly-created water management body in addressing the impact of a prolonged dry spell or El Niño, which is expected to be felt this year particularly on the supply of potable drinking water and irrigation, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said on Tuesday.
The President made the remarks in a media interview after attending a Pag-IBIG Fund event in Pasay City, where he was asked about his marching orders in connection with the looming El Niño phenomenon that could affect the country.
“They may not have heard the fact that we have organized already the Office of Water Management precisely to address this problem,” President Marcos said.
“In fact, I was – just recently, I spoke on precisely this subject on what were the elements that we really have to get into place because we have a serious – kalimutan na muna, isantabi muna natin ‘yung El Niño, kahit walang El Niño may problema talaga tayo sa tubig,” the chief executive pointed out.
Part of the overall water plan is shifting from the traditional water sources to taking advantage of surface water, as well as building infrastructure such as flood control system.
Highlighting the importance of water on agriculture, President Marcos, who also serves as head of the Department of Agriculture (DA), said in terms of rice production, his administration has already identified certain rice varieties such as hybrid varieties that do very well during the dry season.
“So pinapalit-palitan natin ‘yung variety para to take advantage of the different qualities of the different varieties, especially – not only of rice but also of the high value crops dahil ‘pag dry season usually ‘yung ibang lugar na hindi nag-aalaga ng – nagtatanim ng palay ay high value crops ang kanilang tinitingnan,” the President noted.
“But again, the water management problem that we have in the Philippines goes beyond – because it’s water – it goes beyond just agriculture. Of course, agriculture is an extremely important part of it but we are talking about irrigation – water for irrigation, water for power production, our management of surface water sa flood control and for irrigation as well,” President Marcos explained.
The administration has organized the Water Resource Management Office, to be attached to the Office of the President and with the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), to address the concerns of many agencies regarding water management, the chief executive said.
The President also hopes that the bills filed in both Houses of Congress seeking the establishment of the Department of Water Management would materialize soon to focus on water concerns.
The good thing is that there are many examples of water management around the world that the Philippines can emulate, President Marcos said as he noted that it is ironic that the Philippines could face a water crisis despite being a tropical country.
“So it’s just really a question of managing our water. We kept postponing (solving) this problem over the many, many years at every level. So it’s time to put it together, to put in a cohesive plan na masusundan ng lahat ng LGU [local government unit], masusundan ng lahat ng mga agencies of government,” the President said.#
