Water security

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April 30, 2026 | 12:00am

In my more than six decades of life, I have learned that the greatest risks are not always the ones dominating the headlines. These days, understandably so, much of the world’s attention is on the Middle East crisis and what it means for oil prices, energy supply and inflation. But while we talk endlessly about fuel and power, another essential resource continues to slip quietly out of reach for many Filipinos: water.

For all our rivers and rainfall, the Philippines has been water?stressed for years. A February 2026 study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies  tells us that around 12.4 million Filipinos still do not have access to safe water. Fewer than half of households are connected to piped water at home, and 332 municipalities remain effectively “water?less,” despite what national averages may suggest. Across 532 water districts, demand already exceeds supply by an average of 3.6 million cubic meters a year. This is no longer just a question of nature withholding water – it is about decades of under-investment, weak infrastructure and uneven service.

The same study points out our growing dependence on groundwater. Over?extraction, pollution and saltwater intrusion are steadily weakening supplies, especially as population growth, rapid urbanization and climate extremes all collide. Water, in short, has become a quiet multiplier of economic risk. Energy may dominate the conversation today, but without water – food production falters, power plants struggle and in the end, growth itself becomes fragile.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), through its Water Resources Management Office, has been doing work that rarely makes headlines but deeply matters – especially in communities far from Metro Manila.

Consider small island barangays where families once paid P50 to P70 for a five?gallon container of drinking water. With WRMO filtration systems now in place, that cost has fallen to  P20 to P25, and in some areas, refilling stations have brought it further to as low as P15. For families living week to week, those savings are not trivial. They mean extra food, medicine, school supplies and a little breathing room.

By the end of 2026, WRMO projects are expected to bring safe water to nearly 450,000 Filipinos. Behind that number are children less exposed to water?borne disease, farmers with reliable drinking water and households freed from the daily burden of finding something as basic as a glass of clean water.

Projects like infiltration galleries tap subsurface river flows and can help create water sources that can withstand droughts. Geo?resistivity surveys guide deep?well drilling with science instead of guesswork, reducing risk and improving results. These are not quick fixes, but investments meant to last.

If we fail to sustain and scale efforts like these, water security will remain something we talk about only when a crisis hits. And by then, it may already be too late.

DENR Acting Secretary Juan Miguel Cuna recently spoke with refreshing honesty about where we are. For 2024 to 2026, the department has been given P485 million for water programs – far short of the P200 billion that experts estimate is needed to truly secure our water future. The gap is sobering, but at the very least it is also clarifying and brings forward the fact this situation needs resources to be effectively addressed.

After many decades of watching this country navigate one crisis after another, I have learned that awareness is often the first real step toward progress. This is one of those moments when our national conversation deserves to widen. Water security may not stir the same urgency right now as fuel prices or power shortages, but it is every bit as central to our economy, our health and our daily livelihoods. When energy costs go up, the price of pumping and treating water goes up too. In the end, all these systems are connected.

There is also reason to be hopeful. We have shown, time and again, that when an issue is given priority, we are capable of mobilizing real resources. The government was able to find billions to soften fuel shocks for Filipino families, we can also find the will to invest in the most basic resource of all and the one that sustains life before anything else.

But this is the part where cooperation matters most. Water security cannot be carried by one agency alone. What we need is a whole?of?government, whole?of?society effort, built on trust and shared purpose. Local governments, industry groups and the private sector should see the DENR not as a hurdle, but as a partner. Ordinary citizens, too, have a role- not through protest alone, but by steadily asking for transparency, consistency and long?term thinking.

Over the years, I have come to believe that resilience rarely begins with grand speeches. More often, it takes root quietly – in barangays, in households, in small decisions that add up over time. Water security is not just an engineering problem or a budget line item. It is a reflection of how seriously we take our responsibility to one another.

If we keep that in mind, then this challenge, like many before it, can still become a story of progress.