NWRB reports on its role in the water sector

The National Water Resources Board (NWRB) reported on its role in the water sector to the Governing Board of the Tumaga River Water Quality Management Area (WQMA) during the Board’s 4th quarter meeting on November 8, 2016. Engr. Milagros M. Velasco said that NWRB is the lead national coordinating and regulating agency on water resources management and development. Its major functions, she said, are policy formulation and coordination, resource regulation, and economic regulation.

Engr. Velasco stated that based from the JICA Master Plan on Water Resources Management in the Philippines (1998), groundwater in nine (9) cities are now stressed. In Mindanao, she said that the water constraint areas are Davao City, Cagayan de Oro City, and Zamboanga City.

The report that Zamboanga City is one of the water-stressed areas in the country led to a proposal by Ms. Marina A. Rubio of the City Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Management Council (CFARMC) to remind the City Mayor of water issues (e.g. water permit requirement) since this is an urgent concern because recently the city has experienced drought. She informed the NWRB representative that there are many deep well users in the city such as the canning industries.

Engr. Velasco said that “population growth, increased economic activity, and improved standards of living are placing tremendous pressures both on the resource supply and service delivery systems.” In terms of resource regulation, she said that the agency issues water permit, resolves water use conflicts, and monitors compliance of conditions of water permit/conditional water permit and other policies. The NWRB representative enumerated the following uses of water that requires permit: power, fisheries, agriculture, environment, tourism, industry, domestic and municipal. She also reported that the agency has memorandum of agreements with some local government units (LGUs) requiring businesses to apply for water permit before the issuance of business permits.

Presidential Decree No. 1067, otherwise known as the Water Code of the Philippines, is the decree that instituted a Water Code, thereby revising and consolidating the laws governing the ownership, appropriation, utilization, exploitation, development, conservation and protection of water resources. The administrative and enforcement provisions of the Code including the granting of permits and the imposition of penalties for administrative violations, she said, are vested in the NWRB. Article 13 states that “no person including government instrumentalities or government-owned or controlled corporations shall appropriate water without a “water right,” which shall be evidenced by a document known as a “Water Permit.” The water right is a privilege granted by the government to appropriate and use water.

Engr. Velasco mentioned that the agency is continuously conducting data collection, assessment and monitoring of groundwater data in the nine identified critical areas of Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao City, Angeles City, Baguio City, and Zamboanga City.

The Barangay Chair of Zambowood, Hon. Rommel P. Bacasong, inquired on the actions of NWRB on violations of the Water Code. Engr. Velasco said that water users with no permit will be issued with a show cause order, followed by a cease and desist order (CDO) if there is still no compliance, penalty of 1000 pesos per day (if still no compliance), then closure order (if still no compliance).