Panayam kay LWUA Administrator Atty. Vicente Homer Revil
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00:00 Update on their programs and plans for the coming year,
00:04 let's find out with Atty. Vicente Homer Reville,
00:08 Administrator of Local Water Utilities Administration or LUWA.
00:13 Atty. Reville, good afternoon and welcome to the new Philippines today.
00:18 Thank you, Azek Marge, Ma'am Nina.
00:23 I'm happy and you gave me a chance
00:27 to be part of your very important program.
00:31 Good afternoon to all of us.
00:33 Atty. Reville, what are the accomplishments of LUWA for 2023?
00:39 But before he answers that,
00:41 for those who don't know or are not familiar with LUWA,
00:46 what is LUWA and what are its major functions, sir?
00:50 LUWA, its name is Local Water Utilities Administration.
00:56 This is the agency that gives directives to all water districts
01:03 in the whole Philippines outside of Metro Manila.
01:07 Because inside Metro Manila,
01:09 the agency that gives the directives here is MWSS.
01:14 Outside of Metro Manila,
01:16 LUWA, together with 533 water districts in the whole country,
01:21 provides services, supplies and water for our Filipino fellowmen.
01:29 That's what I was thinking because in the TALG,
01:32 we are very happy because they are helping us now with the issue on food security.
01:38 We've been coordinating with them with respect to the LGUs that are involved in this.
01:44 Okay.
01:45 So, as Yusec Marge mentioned earlier,
01:50 what are the major accomplishments of LUWA for the past year?
01:55 Following the call of our beloved President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
02:01 that we should provide water security to our country
02:05 and provide sufficient water to our fellowmen,
02:09 here at LUWA, together with all the water districts,
02:13 we have a program that we call PBBM
02:17 or Patubig sa Buhong Bayan at Mamamayan.
02:22 We are hoping that all our sectors,
02:27 all our provinces, municipalities, cities and barangays
02:34 will be given sufficient water.
02:37 In 2023, we gave more than 1 billion pesos worth of projects.
02:44 We have implemented this.
02:47 We have completed eight projects in 2023.
02:53 We are also starting the Water District Development Sector Program
03:01 that we got the funds from the ADB
03:03 that will provide 11 projects to the water districts
03:08 and will provide an additional 214,000 households that will be additionally served.
03:15 Currently, our water districts are being served
03:21 to about 22.3 million members of our population.
03:26 How many LUWA are being served in the Philippines?
03:33 How many cities and municipalities are being served?
03:39 We have 533 water districts throughout the country.
03:46 This includes the provinces, municipalities and cities.
03:53 We are all servicing 648 LGUs throughout the country
04:00 so that we can provide sufficient water to our fellowmen.
04:05 Attorney Revil, how many water supply and sanitation projects are there in LUWA?
04:11 How many have been completed?
04:13 When will the completion of these projects be completed?
04:17 Currently, we have more than 700 projects.
04:22 Some are already bidded out, some are being implemented.
04:27 We have also more than 40 sanitation projects
04:31 in which we have to implement our programs
04:36 to provide safe water.
04:40 We have a mandamus that after the use of the water
04:45 it should be reused and safe when it returns back to the environment.
04:54 We will do this to have more additional service coverage
04:58 to our fellowmen.
05:01 We will provide LUNAS, which is non-revenue water.
05:06 The water should be used for the leakage
05:11 and it should not be wasted.
05:16 We will also provide sanitation, which is very important
05:22 so that our fellowmen can have clean water
05:27 and when we return it to our environment
05:31 we can say that it is sustainable water for every Filipino.
05:36 Are there places in the country where their water supply and sanitation is still poor?
05:44 What are the places that you are looking for
05:48 to provide them with sufficient and clean water?
05:52 Our country is an archipelago.
05:57 Because there are many islands in our country,
06:02 many of them have problems with the sources of water.
06:05 Not all provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays
06:10 have a readily source of water.
06:13 That is our number one challenge here in Luguak
06:16 along with the water districts.
06:18 Many islands have problems with the salination
06:24 or the water entering the sea.
06:27 That is why we need new technologies
06:29 and desalination projects.
06:32 We are currently doing projects
06:36 in places where the sources of water are very poor.
06:40 Other places that have municipalities, cities
06:46 or places with sources of water
06:49 we are providing the right connection
06:51 so that we can provide more sources of water
06:54 to the increasing population of the Philippines.
06:58 I have one question.
07:00 How many places do not have water supply
07:04 and are having a hard time getting water?
07:07 Do they still need to walk to get water or to give?
07:12 We have a few more million of our Filipinos
07:15 who has a challenge on that.
07:18 Because our rule here is that if you give water
07:25 for more than 30 minutes and you cannot bring it
07:28 to your house, we have a problem with access to water.
07:35 There are many Filipinos who are in the mountains
07:39 or near the sea where the sources of water are poor
07:43 and they still need water for their houses.
07:49 Here in Lua and other water districts,
07:53 we are providing a level 3 supply.
07:58 We are providing pipes and pipe connections
08:05 to the houses.
08:08 As compared to level 1,
08:10 which is only the point source of our water
08:21 and level 2 is the communal source of water.
08:26 Attorney Reveal, do we have priority programs
08:29 in these areas?
08:31 I think you were referring to GIDA places
08:34 or geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.
08:40 We have programs here because our development
08:47 of water supply for the entire country should be half.
08:50 This morning, we had a convergence meeting
08:54 on all the water infrastructure throughout the country.
08:57 We have more decision making to do now
09:01 because our beloved President wants us to expand
09:06 our sources of water through surface water.
09:11 This means that we should not use ground sources of water.
09:18 We should give more emphasis on the development
09:21 of our surface water.
09:23 Of course, this is a challenge for us to provide financial support.
09:34 At the same time, we want to provide proper education
09:42 on how to implement this.
09:45 These are the challenges we are facing now.
09:48 When you speak about surface water,
09:51 does this include what the President always says?
09:55 That because of the heavy rainfall and typhoons in our country,
09:58 why don't we just save this water
10:02 so that our people can use it?
10:05 That is a very good call from our beloved President,
10:11 Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
10:12 because he wants to provide water security to our country.
10:15 What is happening to our country is that
10:19 our water projects are all about mitigation.
10:24 This means that our water in our country is like a disaster.
10:29 We want it to rain, to have typhoons,
10:32 we want water to come from the mountains,
10:35 to flow down the rivers,
10:37 and we want it to be flushed out to the sea.
10:41 What we should do is not think of water as a disaster.
10:46 Let's think of water as a God-given resource to all of us.
10:50 We should be putting more impounding dams,
10:54 more weirs, more catchment basins
10:59 to meet the needs of our country.
11:03 And our needs are not just for our families,
11:09 for every Filipino.
11:12 We also need this for our food security, for our agriculture.
11:16 If there is a dam that is good,
11:19 we can use it for our sources of electricity,
11:24 sources of power.
11:25 So we should do everything in this program
11:29 to provide water to our countrymen,
11:33 food, and electricity for everyone.
11:38 Attorney Reveal, regarding the effects of El Niño in the country,
11:42 how is our water supply outside the NCR?
11:46 Is it enough for our supply now?
11:49 As of now, our water suppliers are saying the same thing.
11:53 El Niño is in the season of its harvest
11:58 towards the last quarter of 2023
12:01 and towards the first and second quarter of 2024.
12:05 What we are doing here now is part of DUA in the water districts.
12:10 We have given directives to all water districts
12:14 that need to have a water supply inventory.
12:18 We will know if there is enough water for their residents.
12:24 Second, there must be the conservation measures
12:28 that we have to always conduct at information drive.
12:32 And we also included here, we also gave a directive,
12:36 that non-revenue water or water supply,
12:39 it should be less than 20%.
12:42 So, the leaks or we call it non-revenue waters,
12:47 it should be no more than 20%.
12:50 And we also gave a directive to have 10% conservation measures
12:54 for our water use.
12:57 Alright, sir. How is your coordination with the water districts
13:02 of different provinces regarding the effects of El Niño
13:07 on the water supply?
13:10 This morning, we had a meeting together with some of the stakeholders
13:19 and with the water districts.
13:21 We are saying here that in the next months,
13:27 we will have challenges in our water supply.
13:31 But we are reading that we should really be prepared
13:35 up to the month of May.
13:37 That is what we really want to call for.
13:40 Because by June, it might start to rain again.
13:43 So, that is what we are doing at information drive.
13:47 We want to talk more with local government units,
13:50 with other stakeholders like the educational systems,
13:56 the schools, the different institutions,
13:58 and social civic organizations for the necessary information drive.
14:03 If necessary, we will do our best to provide a ration.
14:08 But now, you can expect that we still have sufficient water supply in our country.
14:14 We are just preparing for the worst scenario that can happen.
14:18 But for now, we have water for our countrymen.
14:22 Attorney Vince, if there is a shortage in water supply,
14:27 what are the alternative ways or programs of the LUA for this?
14:32 We have what we call water conservation measures.
14:38 What we want to do here is to have more projects to be done
14:46 to have infrastructure projects in response to the El Niño.
14:53 We want to give more support for this.
14:56 Every week or two, we meet with the leaders in Manacanang,
15:04 and we also meet with other sectors that we are really working with
15:10 to find out what are the possible effects of the El Niño on us.
15:15 But for now, we still have enough supply of water for our people.
15:20 Before we ask for your last message for our countrymen watching this,
15:26 can you share with us some exciting projects up ahead for our countrymen?
15:33 This is very encouraging because our government,
15:40 led by our President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.,
15:44 is really focused on the water sector development of our country.
15:48 Now, we know that water is very basic.
15:54 We have done a lot of irrigation dams and irrigation projects.
16:02 Now, these irrigation dams are just a few that will be served for agriculture purposes.
16:10 Some of these will be sources of water for the potable source of our households and our industries.
16:18 We will have about 135 water sources that will open up through irrigation dams.
16:27 For the multipurpose use, it can be used for household and domestic use and commercial use.
16:34 Of course, agriculture is still there.
16:40 We will also have floating solar for irrigation dams.
16:49 All of these are very exciting.
16:54 This coming February, we will have an investor's forum for the development of this water sector.
17:03 Not only for water, but also for agriculture and energy development.
17:10 This is what we are doing now.
17:12 Not only 135, we have also piped up a lot of investments in water.
17:18 This is what our beloved President is showing that he really wants to give water security to our country.
17:25 All right, Attorney Vince.
17:27 Thank you very much for your time.
17:29 Attorney Vicente Homer Revil, Administrator of the Local Water Utilities Administration or LUA.
17:35 Thank you, sir.
17:37 Thank you, sir.