By Katrina Gracia Consebido
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Thursday, March 23, said he wants to use modern technology and strategies to efficiently manage water resources in the country to provide clean and affordable water for Filipinos.
In his speech at the 6th Edition of the Water Philippines’ Conference and Exposition, he expressed his optimism as “technologies that are being used, that are being employed in terms of water treatment, in terms of water management are well-known technologies.”
“The solutions that we need to formulate are out there, the technologies are out there. What has continued to change in the light of climate change is the management, the stratagems on how we manage our water,” he said.
President Marcos also emphasized the significance of water in agriculture, emphasizing the effects of water scarcity on food security.
“When they say water is life, it’s not just a cliché, it’s a truism. And it is something that we must always keep in mind especially now. And that’s why, we in the government – I just signed an executive order wherein we have created the Office of Water Management,” Marcos said.
President Marcos authorized the establishment of a Water Resource Management Office (WRMO) in February to manage the country’s water resources and respond to environmental threats.
The WRMO will report to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and will be in charge of developing and carrying out the Integrated Water Management Plan.
Flood mitigation
Marcos stated that flood control projects have evolved over time, noting that water can be used to generate electricity through small hydroelectric plants.
“When we used to talk a few years ago, when I was still governor, when you said water management, it generally meant flood control. And we would put dikes, we would put dams so as to be able to control the flooding,” he continued.
“However, now, we must think in a very different way. Flood control, although many of the projects that the government has undertaken is categorized as flood control, these flood control projects no longer just are exclusively for that,” Marcos said.
“We take the water and we use it for irrigation, we use it for drinking water if we have a treatment plant,” he added.
The President referred to Israel’s experience, where it has been able to use the same clean water repeatedly for various uses despite having a limited water supply.
“These are the kinds of thinking that we have to apply to the Philippines because of the crisis that we are facing and how debilitating it will be to the entire economy, to the entire society if our water supply problem continues to get greater, continues to become more dependent on what we have been doing in the past,” Marcos said. –cf
