Water Resources

By: Sabit, Roselyn E.

OUTLINE

• Introduction
• Uses of water resources
• Water Distribution
• Water resources under Threat
• Water Resource Global Status
• Established Policies Action by IWMI
• The state of water resources in the Philippines
• Quality of Water Resources in the Philippines
• Status of water use and supply
• Legal and policy framework relating to water quality control, use and
management
• Summary
Definition: Water Resources

Any of the entire range of natural

waters that occur on the Earth,
regardless of their state (i.e., vapor,
liquid, or solid) and that are of
potential use to humans. Of these,
the resources most available for use
are the waters of the oceans, rivers,
and lakes; other available water
resources include groundwater and
deep subsurface waters and glaciers
and permanent snowfields.

https://www.britannica.com/science/water-resource
Uses of Water Resources

• Agriculture activities
• Industrial activities
• House Hold activities
• Recreational activities
• Environment activities
• Humans
Water Distribution
Water resources under Threat: The
changing world from Rio to Rio+20
The challenges of managing water resources for a multiplicity of uses and threats
must be set within the much broader context of changes in the economic, social,
and political landscapes. The world has changed dramatically in an number of
ways since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.
Millinneum Development Goal: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Changes “Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without
sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation“
• Demographics-
• Climate Population
Change- increasing increased
evidence from about
of changes 5.3earth’s
to the billionclimate
in 1992has
to prompted
about 7.0 billion
concern
today;and
feltcontroversy. The need
disproportionally to cope
strongly in with
less existing
developed variability and to
countries.
adapt and build resilience brings significant implications for water
• Demand for resources
water hasavailability.
increased dramatically resulting, also, increased
wealth and increased demand for food and energy
• In many regions water availability has been reduced due to mining of groundwater,
• Competitionpollutions
between and
usesabstraction
has increased
fromresulting
upstreaminwater
difficult allocation decisions
resources.
• Geo-political
• Economic turmoilrealignment- breakup
– economic and of states
financial crisis and later expand. Also, grown economic
strength leading to changes in international trade having implication for water
• Communications
resourceadvances- radical developments in our ability to communicate using mobile
management.
phones, through the internet and other social networking system
 Water Resource Global Status

“estimations at the global scale are complicated

because of limited available observational data
“Global water and the interactions of a combination of important
demand will environmental, social, economic, and political
continue to factors, such as global climate change, population
grow growth, land use change, globalization and
significantly economic development, technological innovations,
over the next political stability and the extent of international
two decades” cooperation. Because of these interconnections,
local water management has global impacts, and
70% global water global developments have local impacts.”
resource is for
Agriculture (Burek et al., 2016 and Wada et al., 2016, p. 176)
Water Resource Global Status

Another Initiative:
NATURE-BASED
SOLUTIONS (NBS)
AND WATER
• Ecohydrology
 “Change does not always
require governments to
Established Policies Action by IWMI spend huge sums of money.
Many informed investment
decisions can save money”

Policy action 1 Change the way we think about water and agriculture

Policy action 2 Fight poverty by improving access to agricultural water and its use

Policy action 3 Manage agriculture to enhance ecosystem services

Policy action 4 Increase the productivity of water

Policy action 5 Upgrade rainfed systems— a little water can go a long way

Policy action 6 Adapt yesterday’s irrigation to tomorrow’s needs

Policy action 7 Reform the reform process— targeting state institutions

The state of water resources in the Philippines:
Surface water and groundwater resources

Supply from different sources: • 18 major river basins

• Rainfall and 421 principal
• Supply from different sources, i.e. river basins defined
rivers by the National
lakes Water Regulatory
reservoirs Board (NWRB ).
groundwater sources

Panay river basin

Surface water and groundwater resources

• The Bureau of
Fisheries and Aquatic
Resources (BFAR)
Laguna Lake is the reports that there are
79 lakes in the
country’s largest lake country, mostly
with a total area of utilized for fish
3,813.2 sq km and is production
also one of the largest
lakes in Southeast
Asia. • Kayangan lake, Palawan
 Surface water and groundwater
resources
• In terms of groundwater,
the country has an extensive
groundwater reservoir with an
aggregate area of about
50,000 sq km

• Northeast Luzon Central Luzon Laguna

Lake basin Cavite-Batangas-Laguna
basin Southeast Luzon Mindoro Island
Negros Island Northeast Leyte Ormoc-
Kananga basin Agusan-Davao basin
Occidental Misamis basin Lanao-
Bukidnon-Misamis basin
 Rainfall as water source in the
Philippines
• Philippines ranges from 1000 to 4000 mm per year, of which 1,000-
2,000 mm are collected as runoff by a natural topography of more
than 421 principal river basins, some 59 natural lakes and numerous
small streams

Overall Water Source Breakdown

• Philippines’ total available freshwater resource is at 145,900
MCM/year based on 80 percent probability for surface water, and
groundwater recharge or extraction at 20,000 MCM/year (NWRB-SPM,
2003; PEM, 2003; ASEAN, 2005)
Quality of Water Resources in the
Philippines
Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004 defines water quality as the
characteristics of water that define its use and measured in terms
of physical, chemical, biological, bacteriological, or radiological
characteristics by which the acceptability of water is evaluated, to
classify water resources and their beneficial use.
*DAO 34 Issued in 1990 states that the desired water parameter
includes:
• dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Total
suspended Solids (TSS), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), and heavy
metals for inland surface waters; and
• fecal coliform, nitrates, and salinity (chloride content) for
groundwater as defined in the Philippine National Standards for
Drinking Water (PNSDW).
Quality of Water Resources in the
Philippines
A. Water Quality Classification

EMB shows that as of 2005, it

has classified 525 water bodies
in terms of best usage and
water quality, representing
62.5 percent of the inventoried
water bodies in the country. Of
these water bodies, 263 are
principal rivers, 213 are minor
rivers, seven are lakes, and 42
are coastal and marine waters.
This means that only 39 percent of the 525 water bodies
may be considered as potential sources of drinking water.
 • BOD – Biochemical oxygen demand
B. Water Quality Assessment
national standards for BOD vary
As of 2005, EMB monitored a from 1 to 15 mg/L based on
total of 196 inland surface beneficial water usage and
waters: 192 rivers and four classification.
lakes. Of the 196 monitored
• TSS – Total Suspended Solids
water bodies, only 127
met the required four sampling For water bodies used for water
events and were included in supply the standard for TSS is 25
the analysis. mg/L for Class AA and 50 mg/L
for Class A (EMB, 2006).
• DO – Dissolved Oxygen
• TDS – Total Dissolved Solids
national standard for DO is 5
mg/L, except for water bodies For water bodies classified as
classified as Class D and Class SD, Class AA, the standard for TDS
with standards set at 3 mg/L and levels is expected not to exceed
2 mg/L,respectively (PEM, 2004). 500 mg/L and 1,000 mg/L for
both Class A and D waters.
• Heavy metals
0.05 ppm or mg/L standard set
for lead in effluent from old and
existing industries
(they also measure the mercury
level)
C. Ground Water Quality
Assessment
the standard for TDS is 500 mg/L and
a “negative” for coliform
D. Pollution hot spots
DENR identified three main sources of
pollution: domestic wastewater discharges
(also called ‘municipal’), agricultural
wastewater, and industrial wastewater.
E. Health and environmental
problems
Pollution of rivers, streams, and
lakes contaminate ground and
surface waters, thus exposing the
population to environmentally-
related diseases. The relationship
between polluted water and
disease has now been firmly
established and accepted.
F. Efforts to address problems
Various efforts have been and are
being undertaken to address the
problems on water pollution,
especially chemical pollution.
Status of water use and supply

A. Leading consumers or users of water B. Access to drinking water

The country’s major water users “2005

Water Little Green
supplied Data
by all Book”inofthe
sources the
are the agricultural sector which World Bank,isone
Philippines out of five
considered Filipinos
unsafe for
accounts for 85.27 percent of the does not without
drinking get water from treatment.
further formal sources.
total water supply, the industrial Only 77 percent
Outside of Metroof the rural
Manila, population
there are
sector which consumes 7.46% and and
water90treatment
percent ofplants
those in
in Metro
urban Roxas,
areas
lastly the domestic users which have access
San Jose Delto an improved
Monte, water
Leyte, Iloilo,
use the remaining 7.27percent source and only
Zamboanga, and44 percent
etc. Most ofhave
thedirect
water
(PEM, 2003; 2004). house connections.
districts Thosefor
use chlorination without house
treatment.
connections access water from wells,
springs, communal faucets, and/or from
small scale informal providers (Madrazo,
A., 2002).
Status of water use and supply

C. Water shortage and scarcity

• NWRB has identified nine water-critical urbanized areas where water is
consumed intensively. This includes: Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Davao, Baguio
City, Angeles City, Bacolod City, Iloilo City, Cagayan de Oro City, and
Zamboanga City.
In the summer of 2007, a news article reported that water suppliers in the
Visayas are facing supply problems because of the drying up of water sources
due to climatic changes. According to Melchor Bibanco, president of the Visayas
Association of Water Districts, in an interview, most water districts were
experiencing supply problems, especially during the summer season. However,
he also observes that this is getting worse each year. He attributed the depletion
of water sources to the El Niño weather phenomenon as part of the global
climatic changes (Tupas, 2007).
Status of water use and supply

D. Major problems concerning water use and scarcity

• Disparities between water supply and demand

• Lack of water allocation formula
• Corporations also directly compete with the people for the control
and use of available freshwater resources
• Weak water use regulation and enforcement
• Inefficient water use
• Depletion of groundwater resources
• Fragmented Management
Status of water use and supply

E. Other threats to water availability

• decline and deterioration of watersheds due to excessive logging and etc.

Some report do mention that most of the watersheds in the Phil. Are in
critical condition as manifested by recent and recurring calamities
(flashfloods) and increased in the frequency of El Nino events

Deteriorating watersheds are one of the reason for the increase in flooding
(WB, 2003)

Example of Calamities that hit the Philippines

*Great Luzon Floods in 1972
*Sendong (2010)
*etc
Legal and policy framework relating to water
quality control, use and management
A. Policies pertaining to water use and management
One of the earliest attempts at systematic management of water has been the
adoption of a National Water Code in 1976 Presidential Decree 1067 (1976) (EMB,
Philippine Country Assessment, p. 3).
 Legal and policy
framework relating
to water quality
control, use and
management

B. Laws pertaining to
water quality control
C. Ambient water quality standards
TheWater
The Clean PNSDW Actofdefines
1993 outlines
ambientvarious
water parameters to average
quality as the be used water
in the purity, which is
analysis
distinguished of drinking
from dischargewater quality. There
measurements are
taken atcurrently 56of pollution. It is the general
the source
amount bacteriological, physical,
of pollution present chemical,
in a broad area.radiological, and biological
parameters to be monitored (WHO, 2002). However, the relevant
parameters used for groundwater quality assessment are: fecal
“According
coliform, to EMB,and
nitrates, Philippine
salinitywater quality
or chloride is assessed
content (EMB,based
2006).on set beneficial use as
defined in the DENR Administrative Order (DAO) 34, Series of 1990. It further mentions
that DAO 34 contains 33 parameters that define the desired water quality per water
body classification.”
For purposes of classification, the following minimum water quality parameters are often
used:
• Dissolved Oxygen (DO) applicable only for rivers, lakes,
reservoirs and do not apply to
• pH groundwater resources. the
Philippine National Standards for
• Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) Drinking Water or PNSDW is used as
• Total Coliform organisms the standard for assessing the
quality of groundwater resources
(EMB, 2006)
D. Standards for wastewater emissions

DENR Administrative Order No. 35 Series of 1990

To prevent, abate and control industrial pollution
D. Standards for wastewater emissions
E. Government agencies involved in regulating water use,
water quality control, and management
30 Government Agencies
Mandated agencies that performed
s.t. general functions are the ff: formulated policy :
• Water supply • DPWH
• Irrigation • DOH
• Hydropower • DENR
• Flood control • DILG
• NPC and BSWM
• Pollution
• MWSS
• Watershed management • LWUA

“In National Level water issues policy Agencies w/ same function

formulation and water code • DENR
enforcement responsibility falls to the • DOH
NWRB” • Local Government Code of 1991 RA 7160
Summary

“Water is a universal sign of life and as human thinking evolves,

initiatives and innovations for water resource develops. Overall, the
framework of international policies influenced the visions and plans for
water resource management in the Philippines. Though greater
conundrum (such as global warming, human greed and etc.) arises,
efforts are still greatly exerted for water resource management, and
those efforts are instrumented by wisdom and knowledge from science-
based solutions and suggestions.”
REFERENCES

• file:///C:/Users/roselyn/Downloads/Summary_SynthesisBook.pdf
• file:///C:/Users/roselyn/Downloads/the-state-of-water-in-the-phil.pdf
• http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/environ.shtml
• http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/science-
technology/engineering/sustainable-engineering/millennium-development-goals/
• http://www.wepa-db.net/policies/law/philippines/dao35_1990.htm
• http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0026/002614/261424e.pdf
• https://www.britannica.com/science/water-resource