(Continued from yesterday)
FROM the time that Israel was threatened by droughts six years ago, the situation has already changed, because they already have plenty of water due to a massive water conservation and desalination program.
Although it could be said that Israel’s turnaround could be attributed to the good combination of energy and technology, the real reason for their success was the establishment eight years ago of its Water and Sewerage Authority, a very powerful inter-ministerial agency.
The Director of this agency is appointed by the Israeli Cabinet and he or she reports directly to the Israeli Parliament and the Minister of Energy and Water Resources. To my knowledge, Israel is the only country that has combined energy and water into one Ministry.
Because of its inter-ministerial character, the Israeli Authority exercises its powers with the consent of the Ministers of Agriculture, Environmental Protection, Health, Finance and the Interior. The administration of the Authority is overseen by a Council that is composed of senior representatives from these five Ministries.
I would venture to guess that the consent of the concerned Ministers is obtained through the participation of their representatives to the Council. I think that that is a very practical arrangement, because it would allow direct consultation by way of good coordination. That way also, none of the Ministers are bypassed.
Here in the Philippines, there are around 30 departments, bureaus, corporations and other government instrumentalities that are directly or indirectly involved with the complete supply chain of water, one way or the other.
For the record, there is a National Water Resources Board (NWRB) that is under the Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR). By the looks of it, its purpose is conceptually the same as the Israeli Authority, except that its Executive Director is not appointed by the Philippine Cabinet, and it does not report directly to the Congress.
Aside from the DENR Secretary, it has four other Cabinet Secretaries as members, namely the Secretaries of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Department of Health (DOH).
For some reason, the MWSS and the LWUA are not even members of the NWRB, and so are many other agencies that have obviously some kind of water related functions, such as the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Forest Management Bureau (FMB), the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), the National Irrigation Authority (NIA), the Bureau of Soil & Water Management (BSWM), the Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), the Public Estates Authority (PEA), the National Power Corporation (NPC), the National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Council (NDRRMC) and the Climate Change Commission (CCC).
I do not know what happened between here and there, but Executive Order (EO) No. 124-A signed by President Corazon C. Aquino specifically states that the NWRB should be under the DPWH.
What is confusing is that the same EO also ordered the transfer of the technical functions of the NWRB to the Bureau of Research & Standards (BRS) of the DPWH.
In the midst of this confusion, it is very clear that as of now, we do not have a central water authority with a head that could function as a “water czar.”
In this connection, I think that it would be a good idea to follow the Israeli model wherein the “water czar” could exercise executive functions as needed, provided that he or she does so with the consent of all other government agencies that would have something to do with the complete supply chain of water, directly or indirectly, one way or the other./PN
