IBON Features Vol. X No. 38

Water is life and every Filipino has the right to clean, potable and sufficient water. But for water consumers around the country, this basic right has always been ignored.

Metro Manila residents know this first hand—water rates have risen by nearly 400% since 1997 when the Lopezes and Ayalas, along with some of the world’s biggest water corporations, bought the MWSS in what was dubbed as the largest water privatization contract in history.

Local communities and indigenous groups meanwhile have also complained long enough the construction of large dams which they say only diverted the country’s scarce water resources to operations of foreign and local mining companies, agrobusiness and other corporate ventures.

Even consumers of local water districts such as those in Baguio City and Bacolod have been facing water rate increases and are alarmed by plans of big local and foreign water corporations to enter their water service areas.

For Filipino water consumers already burdened by rising oil prices and electricity charges, scarce and unaffordable water supply is simply too much.

Saying that water privatization schemes is the growing threat to people’s access to water, nearly 400 representatives from about 128 people’s organizations and consumer groups gathered at the first National People’s Convention on Water to launch a Filipino people’s water code, which proponents describe as an alternative instrument for water resource management in the country.

Initiated by the Water for the People Network, a broad alliance of NGOs and advocacy groups, people’s organizations, consumer groups, water district unions and homeowners’ associations, the people’s water code outlines Filipinos’ aspirations on water—that access to water is a basic human right. As a public resource, it should be allocated and managed in the interest of the people, particularly poor and marginalized sectors, rather of corporate profit.

“Water advocates around the country helped draft this historic people’s water code as one of their concrete answers to the government-private sector scheme to privatize the country’s water services and exploit our water resources,” IBON advocacy specialist Arnold Padilla explains. “Hopefully, our legislators will adopt this as a legal instrument that will provide a strong support to ongoing grassroots campaign against water privatization.”

IBON, together with BAYAN and local environmental groups are among the convenors of the Water for the People Network.

A Big step

IBON Research Director Antonio Tujan describes the launching of the people’s water code as a big step in asserting the Filipino’s right to water, and as a significant part of an overall campaign to further confront the growing trend of privatizing water resources and infrastructure.

The people’s water code provides guidelines for implementing pro-people policies and programs on water services, water supply infrastructure management, and water resource utilization.

It seeks first for sustainable pro-people programs that would conserve freshwater ecosystems such as lakes, rives, groundwater, among others. Under this objective, water consumers are hoping the government would terminate the construction of large-scale dams, along with large-scale forms of exploitation of natural resources such as mining and logging that threaten the environment and the welfare of local communities.

On water supply, the people’s code proposes small-scale hydropower systems and community-managed irrigation and water supply systems as the alternative to the current trend to construct large dams that require huge investment through official development assistance (ODA).

The San Roque Dam for instance has reportedly displaced thousands of settler-families along the banks of the Agno River in the Cordillera region. Local communities and indigenous groups have been waging more than a decade of campaign against its continued operation.

The code also advocates a policy of public control and management of the country’s water infrastructure and water services, including upending the commodification of water such as promotion of bottled water and regularization of water service fees.

Water advocates also propose a socialized fee structure that charges for water use beyond basic household consumption. The people’s code also states eliminating the practice of user fees for large-scale irrigation systems that hurt small farmers the most.

“Overall, the people’s water code embodies the conservation of water resources and management of water service and infrastructure systems for the interest and welfare of water consumers, particularly in marginalized sectors, farmers, fisherfolk and indigenous communities,” Padilla said.

Heightening campaign

The people’s water code was drafted after two days of consultations with more than 100 people’s organizations and consumer groups who gathered for the first national convention of the Water for the People Network.

The conventions, says its organizers, serves as a platform to put forward a national people’s agenda on water issues.

The Water for the People Network was organized last January as a broad national campaign network that started with a Metro Manila-based advocacy campaign against the government bailout of Maynilad and the whole privatization scheme of the MWSS.

Bayan Secretary-General Renato Reyes said that the network is a concrete step towards further consolidating various citizens’ campaigns against the issue of water privatization, many of which have been organized way before the organization of the network.

The Water for the People Network is composed of Bayan, IBON Foundation, Confederation for the Advancement and Recognition of Government Employees (Courage), Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (KPNE), Center for Environmental Concerns, various homeowners’ and barangay associations, water district unions, and other consumer groups. IBON Features