Environment-society issues facing developing countries: water in the Philippines

1. Environment-society issues facing developing countries: water in the Philippines Karen Fisher, RMAP SRES1001, 24 April 2007

2. Water scarcity: what we think we know • Water scarcity in Australia • Not enough water (rainfall v. demand) e.g. drought • Desalinisation (Perth, Sydney), inter-basin transfers (NSW – SE QLD; Kimberley Pipeline Project – Perth); water restrictions • Murray-Darling • Likely to be ‘turned off’ • No allocations to irrigators, environmental flows • Retain water for use in urban areas, basic needs • Flow-on effects for urban residents? Price increases

3. Water (in)security in developing countries • Developing countries • 1.1 billion people have inadequate access to water • 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation • Poor access to water leads to adverse effects on • Health – diseases such as typhoid, malaria • Quality of life – time burden (esp. women/girls) • Economic development – important input for e.g. industry, commercial activities See: UNHDR (2006)

4. International conferences on water

5. Water security to meet basic needs • Millennium Development Goals • 8 goals agreed to by countries to improve living conditions of people by 2015 • Target under Goal 7 • Halve the number without access to water by 2015 • Minimum threshold: 20 litres per day per person • Many use ~ 5 litres per day

6. Why is water scarce? • Deficits in adequate water supply frequently due to institutions and political choices NOT water’s availability (e.g. Philippines) • Key challenges to water security • Political system / management approach • Population growth • Agriculture • Urbanisation • Economic growth • The way in which water is allocated

7. Global Mean Annual Precipitation WWAP, 2003: United Nations World Water Development Report: Water for People, Water for Life http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/

8. Urban and rural populations WWAP, 2003: United Nations World Water Development Report: Water for People, Water for Life

9. Water allocation • Water can be viewed as a public good, a social good, a merit good, a free good, an economic good, a commodity, an environmental resource and an entity that possesses cultural, spiritual or symbolic value for communities and peoples (Mehta, 2000). • Contested resource, competition between users/uses • Difficult to reconcile economic, social, cultural and environmental • Difficult resource to manage

10. Map of the Philippines

11. Water resources in the Philippines • High annual rainfall • Water sources – rainfall, surface water, groundwater • Irrigation largest use = 84% (municipal = 8%; industrial = 8%) • Difficulties in ensuring urban water despite relatively low overall demand on water stocks • Access to potable water for approx 80% of total population • Not necessarily piped networks, individual household-level, or 24-hrs

12. How urban households obtain water Consumer buys Communal well Purchase from water utility (cheapest option) Purchase from water delivery company Free Private well Purchase water from neighbours Purchase bottled drinking water Rainwater tanks

13. Urban water in the Philippines • Unable to provide universal coverage because of: • Lack of investment in infrastructure • Rapid population growth • Urbanisation/urban growth • Growth concentrated in a few cities (e.g. Manila) as an outcome of government policy and international investment preferences etc. • Also inadequacies in smaller cities due to lack of investment • Poor management practices; adverse outcomes (e.g. pollution) • Inadequate institutional structures for managing water (e.g. policy and implementation)

14. Solutions? • Private sector participation to overcome government inefficiencies and lack of investment • e.g. Manila. However, highly controversial – economic v. non-economic (Johnstone et al 1999) • Integrated water resource management • Holistic approach (econ., social, hydro., political), catchment scale (Rahaman and Varis, 2005). • Participatory approaches to water resource management • Strengthening governance institutions • better policy and regulation (UNDP et al, 2003)

15. To sum up … • Water problems not simply a matter of physical scarcity • ‘Scarcity’ not simple to define (depends on context, perspective) • Highly complex (management) problem • Social, cultural, political and economic

16. References Johnstone, N., Wood, L., and Hearne, R., 1999. Private sector participation in urban water and sanitation: realising social and environmental objectives in developing countries. Natural Resources Forum, 23: 287-302 Mehta, L., 2000. Water for the Twenty-First Century: Challenges and Misconceptions. IDS Working Paper. Institute of Development Studies, Brighton. Available at http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp111.pdf Date accessed 23 April 2007. Rahaman, MM and Varis, O., 2005. Integrated water resources management: evolution, prospects and future challenges. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 1(1): 1-8. UNDP, UNEP, WB and WRI, 2003. World Resources 2002-2004: Decisions for the Earth—Balance, Voice and Power. World Resources Institute, Washington DC. UNHDR, 2006. Human Development Report 2006. Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis. UNDP, New York. Available at http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/ Date accessed 23 April 2007. WWAP, 2003. United Nations World Water Development Report: Water for People, Water for Life. UNESCO, New York. Available at http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/