Access to potable water and basic sanitation
MDG 7 commits the country to halving the number of people without access to water and basic sanitation by 2015. Meeting this target is a major challenge for a number of reasons. One, the lack of sector data presents a logistical challenge in the determination of priority waterless areas. Two, investments in water supply and sanitation have also been significantly low relative to overall public spending (World Bank 2005), which may be due to the lack of a coherent financing framework in the sector. Three, public infrastructure spending by the national government shows a bias for Metro Manila and other urban areas, including spending for water supply, sewerage and septage management. And four, the absence of a clear monitoring system makes it difficult to assess and address the sustainability of developed infrastructure.
Inefficient and insufficient support for growth and production centers
The absence of a single lead agency to coordinate development in the water sector is one of the major hurdles to the efficient implementation of strategic water infrastructure. There are at least 30 agencies involved in the water sector, with specific but often overlapping or conflicting mandates for water supply, irrigation, flood management, pollution control, watershed management, financing, policy formulation and coordination, among others. This situation presents difficulties for effective coordination and implementation of projects and programs to sustainably meet water use and management. (e.g., in meeting the needs of competing users of water; linking water service provision with basic sanitation services; and ensuring effective and efficient flood risk reduction and management).
While the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) has the legal mandate for water governance, its existing structure and budget limit the exercise of its functions. To address the existing leadership gaps, the mandate of the Subcommittee on Water Resources (SCWR), initially created under the Committee on Infrastructure (INFRACOM) to ensure the implementation of the Philippine Water Supply Sector Roadmap, was expanded to become the key policy coordination body for the water sector.6 Despite this, however, the sector remains weak in terms of regulation and allocation of water resources.
Furthermore, effective planning, target-setting, monitoring and implementation are impeded by the lack of up-to-date, integrated, harmonized and comprehensive data on the sector. Such data is significant in the development of new water sources; and in the design of CCA and DRRM mechanisms. But initiatives to establish a knowledge-sharing network among stakeholders in water have so far proved unsustainable since there is no clear framework and reliable financing for the continuous updating and improvement of access to information.
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6 The SCWR is an inter-agency committee for the Water Resources Sector established through NEDA Board Committee on Infrastructure Resolution No. 2, Series of 2008 composed of representatives from key national government agencies, leagues of cities and muni cipalities, academe and civil society. Its key function is to advise the NEDA Board and INFRACOM on policies and issues related to the Water Sector.