Forgotten law never enforced can solve water crisis, floodings
By Alcuin Papa
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:05:00 07/25/2010
Filed Under: Water Supply, Flood, Laws, Environmental Issues
THE IMPLEMENTATION of a little-known law requiring that barangays construct catchments or reservoirs to collect rainwater would have helped solve the ongoing water crisis and the country’s regular flooding woes, according to an environmental lawyer.
Antonio Oposa Jr., a professor of environmental law at the University of the Philippines, cited Republic Act No. 6716, the law that provides for the construction of water wells, rainwater collectors, development of springs and rehabilitation of existing water wells in all of the country’s barangays.
The law, designed to save rainwater during the rainy season in catchments or sumps, was passed in 1989 and has never been implemented, according to Oposa.
“The water shortage and rationing that we are again going through has been coming for a long time. We are being flooded during the rainy season, yet we are undergoing severe water shortage. And all because we forgot, or simply neglected to implement, a simple law that requires the construction of rainwater catchment/collectors in every barangay,” he said.
He described the most simple rainwater catchment system as a specially prepared hole in the lowest level of a vacant lot to capture rain water from the sky or from the ground. If properly designed, ground catchment systems can collect large quantities of rainwater.
Oposa said harvested rainwater can provide supplemental water for nonpotable household requirements, mitigate flooding by providing a receptacle for excess water and increase soil moisture levels for urban greenery, thus providing areas for recreation.
But by far the most important benefit is the replenishment of and improvement in the quality of ground water from where the country draws its supply of drinking water, he said.
The rainwater that is saved refill the aquifers or natural reservoirs in a process called groundwater recharge, where the runoff on the ground is collected and allowed to be absorbed, raising the groundwater level and increasing the amount of water stored in the aquifers.
“If we only captured rainwater during the rainy season in cavities of the Earth as Nature intended, flooding would be minimized, if not altogether eliminated,” said Oposa.
Sickbed of noncompliance
According to Oposa, the mandate for the construction of the rainwater collectors was originally given to the Department of Public Works and Highways but later devolved to local government units.
In June 2009, Oposa and the Global Legal Action on Climate Change wrote to the DPWH inquiring into the implementation of the law.
In its reply dated Aug. 6, 2009, the DPWH said that from January to June 2009, it had put up only four demonstration rainwater collectors.
The law mandates that there should be at least 100,000 rainwater collectors and catchment areas all over the country by 1991.
With the number of basins already built by the DPWH, compliance with the RA 6716 is actually at 0.004 percent, said Oposa.
“This number is so minuscule, microscopic and infinitesimal that in law, it is tantamount to gross negligence in the performance of public duty. It also presents a clear, unmistakable and palpable cause of action for a writ of mandamus,” he said.
Last April, Oposa and a group of concerned citizens filed action with the Supreme Court, which they called a writ of “kalikasan,” asking the high court to compel the government to implement RA 6716 “that has long languished in the sickbed of noncompliance.”
Respondents not responding
Named as respondents were the Office of the President, the DPWH, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the newly created Climate Change Commission, 80 provinces, 150 cities, 1,400 municipalities and all 42,000 barangays.
None of the respondents have responded. Only the League of Provinces, representing the 80 provinces, has filed a comment, questioning the complaint on procedural matters.
Last year, Oposa, who led a citizen’s group in filing a case holding the government liable for the pollution and cleanup of the Manila Bay, won a landmark decision from the Supreme Court which compelled 11 government agencies to rehabilitate the bay and report the progress of the work to the high court.
It was cited by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation that chose Oposa to be one of six Asians conferred Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize in 2009.
Blame game on
In a separate statement, the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) said the water crisis in Metro Manila was caused by the destruction of watershed areas, mismanagement of the environment and corporate greed.
According to Clemente Bautista of Kalikasan-PNE, government agencies like the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), the National Power Corp. (Napocor), the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) and water concessionaires, Maynilad and Manila Water, are blaming each other without taking any responsibility.
He also denounced these agencies for blaming nature for failing to provide adequate rainfall.
Catherine Abon, a hydrologist from the University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences and a member of the Agham party-list group, said the Angat watershed could provide water for the metropolis throughout the year if it is properly managed.
“Water storage and retention capacity of the Angat watershed is decreasing as a result of poor protection of and continuing environmental degradation, such as widespread deforestation and massive soil erosion, ” she said.
