Senate to work on approval of water department bill – Poe

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Sen. Grace Poe on Tuesday said that the Senate will expedite the passage of a bill to create a government agency to manage the country’s water resources.

“But I would like to set our goals properly, we will, no doubt, pass this, but this is not something that we can do overnight,” Poe said in a hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Services.

“We are about to go on a break before the SONA [State of the Nation Address]. I think it’s unrealistic to say that we will pass it then, with so many problems. But we will endeavor to pass it definitely by this Congress because we have to, we have to, this is crucial,” she added, speaking partly in Filipino.

The hearing discussed 11 separate bills aimed at creating a Department of Water Resource Management.

The bills cited the need for an agency dedicated to water management, conservation, and distribution.

Meanwhile, Undersecretary Carlos David, head of the Water Resource Management Office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said that creating a water resource management department would not instantly solve the water-related problems of the country.

“While I see the wisdom of having a single authority where all the regulations emanate from, like a single department, it doesn’t mean that the problems of the sector will magically disappear once a department is created […],” David said.

Poe agreed with David, saying: “There’s really no silver bullet for that — no magic bullet.”