ARE WATERWORKS INCLUDED IN THE SCOPE OF DPWH MANDATES?

ARE WATERWORKS INCLUDED IN THE SCOPE OF DPWH MANDATES?

Water, they say, is life — and yet, millions of Filipinos still live without access to clean, safe, and reliable water. This leads me to a simple but important question: Are waterworks included in the scope of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)?

The answer, fortunately, is yes. The mandate of DPWH is broad — it covers the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of public infrastructure across the country. That includes roads, bridges, flood control systems, water resources, and yes, waterworks.

That’s the good news. The not-so-good news? While DPWH can build waterworks, it may not always have the budget for it. The funds often go to roads, bridges, and flood control — the more visible types of projects. But this doesn’t mean we should accept that situation as permanent. If Congress wants to make clean water a true national priority, then it can and should allocate more resources for DPWH to construct water systems, especially in underserved provinces and remote barangays.

Now, here’s why I ask: the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) is clearly mandated to manage, finance, and regulate local water systems, particularly through Local Water Districts (LWDs). But the agency’s role focuses on the administration of water utilities — not necessarily the construction of the physical systems.

That construction role — digging the wells, building the reservoirs, laying down the pipelines — falls naturally within the scope of DPWH. So why not make it explicit? Why not let DPWH focus on building, while LWUA focuses on managing and operating? It’s a logical division of labor.

Let’s look at it from the perspective of DPWH’s full mandate:

Infrastructure Development: DPWH builds national roads, bridges, and flood control systems. Under the same mandate, it is also authorized to develop water resource projects — including irrigation dams, impounding systems, and water supply networks.

Public Buildings and Facilities: From schools to hospitals, DPWH already constructs essential public structures. It would not be a stretch to include community-level water facilities as part of its “public service infrastructure.”

Disaster and Climate Adaptation: DPWH also works on climate-resilient infrastructure — dikes, drainage, and flood protection. Waterworks fit perfectly into this framework because they support both disaster mitigation and public health resilience.

In fact, the department’s current priorities already include Water Supply and Sanitation Projects — which feature deep wells, reservoirs, pipelines, and even communal faucets. The Build Better More program of the Marcos administration explicitly supports water-related infrastructure as part of inclusive growth.

That’s why this is the perfect time to revisit DPWH’s waterworks function. With Secretary Vince Dizon now at the helm, the agency has reportedly started saving costs by eliminating redundant or “ghost” contractors — the kind that once drained billions in public funds. If those savings are real, could we not channel some of them into rural water projects?

Imagine a coordinated national effort where DPWH engineers design and build water systems powered by renewable energy — solar pumps, micro-hydropower, or rainwater harvesting facilities. LWUA and the Local Water Districts could then take over the operation, maintenance, and billing. This partnership would accelerate our progress toward universal access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030, a target under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6).

To put it in perspective, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF’s Joint Monitoring Programme, only around 47% of Filipinos have access to safely managed drinking water as of 2022. That means more than half of the population still relies on shared taps, unprotected wells, or even unsafe water sources. This is unacceptable in a country with as many engineers, hydrologists, and infrastructure agencies as ours.

So here’s my proposal: Let’s formalize a DPWH–LWUA partnership model for water infrastructure. DPWH would handle the technical side — design, construction, and inspection. LWUA and the Local Water Districts would handle distribution, regulation, and financial sustainability. Congress, for its part, could legislate a “National Waterworks Construction Fund” to ensure that every province gets its share.

And since DPWH is already integrating green engineering into its flood control and drainage programs, we can go further — require that all future waterworks projects use renewable or low-carbon technologies. After all, sustainability should not be an afterthought; it should be part of the design itself.

Let’s face it — water infrastructure may not be as glamorous as expressways or bridges, but it is far more essential. Roads connect places; water sustains lives.

In the end, the real question is not whether DPWH can build waterworks — because it clearly can — but whether we, as a country, have the political will to make water access as urgent a priority as highways or airports.

If the Philippines can build thousands of kilometers of roads every year, surely we can build enough pipelines and reservoirs to ensure that no Filipino family has to fetch water from a muddy creek ever again.

Because development isn’t just about mobility — it’s about dignity. And dignity begins with a glass of clean water.

RAMON IKE V. SENERES

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