Senator Loren Legarda has recently filed Senate Bill No. 2011 joining five other colleagues in the Upper Chamber of Congress in advocating for legislated increase in the authorized capitalization and the borrowing capacities of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) to sustain the government's program of developing water supply systems and improving the people's access to safe potable water in the countryside.

In throwing her full support to the financial strengthening of the national government's lead agency for provincial water supply, Sen. Legarda stressed the need for "LWUA to be strengthened to further spread the benefits of improved water systems in places in dire need of the services of efficient and professionally-run water districts."

Sen. Legarda's bill seeks to increase LWUA's authorized capital from P2.5 Billion to P25 Billion and its domestic and foreign borrowing authority, from P1 Billion and US$ 500 Million to P10 Billion and US$700 Million, respectively, addressing the need to infuse additional funding for expansion and improvement of the agency's financial and technical servicing.

Sen. Legarda noted that LWUA has been able to establish and put into operation water districts in some 600 cities and towns out of the 1,500 that fall under the agency's coverage, benefiting some 14 million Filipinos in the countryside, despite having exhausted its original authorized capitalization of P2.5 Billion years ago.

However, she said that the population covered accounted for only 15 percent of the country's projected population in 2007 of 88.7 million." With this data, 85 percent of the residents in the countryside have no access to sufficient supply of safe and potable water mainly because of local government units not initiating yet the formation of water districts in their respective areas.

Legrada also cited a World Bank study in 2004 saying that 58 percent of the Philippines' groundwater sampled was contaminated with coliform and requiring treatment and that according to World Health Organization (WHO), waterborne diseases are preventable with the provision of safe, potable and adequate water supply and sanitation facilities. "It is time that we save these residents from the perennial threat of epidemics and water-borne diseases as a result of contaminated drinking water."

With her filing of SB 2011, Sen. Legrada thus joined Senators Juan Miguel Zubirri, Ramon "Bong" Revilla, Juan Ponce Enrile, Manuel "Lito" Lapid and Jinggoy Estrada who are all advocating for the financial strengthening of LWUA to effectively perform its mandate of promoting the development of provincial water supply.

A parallel bill principally authored by House Deputy Speaker Eric Singson has been filed in the Lower House and has already been passed by the House Committee on Public Works chaired by Rep. Rogaciano Mercado.

c February 27, 2008