Let’s create DWR
WITH the worsening of climate change, various quarters fear that some countries may, one day, experience “water crisis.”
In the view of many, including Filipinos, the fear is, without doubt, valid amid the current drought brought about by El Nino.
Thus, it is no wonder that more people now want the-two-chamber Congress to speed up the approval of a bill seeking the creation of a new department.
Recently, the Senate committee on public services, headed by Sen. Grace Poe, conducted the first hearing on the proposed Department of Water Resources (DWR).
Under the bill, the DWR will manage the country’s 421 water basins, 59 natural lakes and 100,000 hectares of freshwater swamps.
These are in addition to the 50,000 square kilometers of groundwater reservoir and 2,400 millimeters of average rainfall throughout the year..
Poe, a daughter of the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. of vote-rich Pangasinan, assured that the bill would be approved before the adjournment of the 19th Congress.
It will be recalled that in his well-applauded state-of-nation address last year, President Marcos listed the DWR bill as a priority measure.
