Establishment of a water department mulled

Two House panels on Monday formed a technical working group (TWG), which will draft a substitute bill for measures seeking to create the Department of Water. House ways and means panel Chair Rep. Joey Salceda was tasked to lead the TWG formed by the House committees on government reorganization and public works. There are 35 similar bills filed in the House, which seek to create a Department of Water that will oversee the regulation of the precious resource. In the 18th Congress, deliberations on the bills on creating the said agency reached the plenary floor but were left unfinished. In a statement, Salceda explained the measures as “imitating the model for energy regulation in the country.” The bill aims to ensure and accelerate universal access to water supply and sanitation services and to declare all water and water treatment infrastructure projects as projects imbued with national interest.

—Julie M. Aurelio