Press Release - Poe pushes for Department of Water anew: Titanic reform needed vs. Titanic disaster

Sen. Grace Poe pressed anew for the creation of a Department of Water, saying the country's water woes are "too big" to be met by fragmented responses.

Poe also enjoined the private sector to work with the government in ensuring sustainable water management and access of the people to safe drinking water and sanitation.

"The irony is that although there is a horde of offices involved in water, there is no one agency that has overall responsibility," Poe said in a forum on Water Security Strategy organized by the Coca Cola company.

"Simply put: Our tubig sector is too big. So before we all sink, we need nothing less than a Titanic reform to prevent a Titanic disaster," she added.

The chairperson of the Senate public services committee said that while a number of water-related agencies exist, there is evident lack of leadership and holistic planning for the sector.

Poe's Senate Bill No. 102 or the National Water Resource Management Act, which is pending at the committee level, pitches for the creation of a Department of Water Resources.

This new agency will be the primary policy planning, coordinating, and implementing entity responsible for the comprehensive and integrated development and management of water resources in the Philippines.

"Undoubtedly, the impact of having access to clean water is life-changing. But who decides which communities will receive this blessing? Consequently, one area that needs to be immediately addressed is our fragmented institutional, regulatory, and management framework," Poe stressed.

The proposed department is urgent and needed as water has become a critical resource all over the world. This calls for investments in infrastructure, technology and capacity building to meet the increasingly growing needs of the population.

Lamentably, Poe said that in the Philippines, two out of every 10 families do not have access to an improved source of drinking water. Two out of 10 families also do not have access to any sanitation facility. And three out of 10 Filipino families do not have access to a hand-washing facility.

Based on a study of the National Economic Development Authority, the water availability per person in the country also