Water shortage may hinder growth
Credit to Author: Jordeene B. Lagare| Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2019 16:20:13 +0000
A POSSIBLE water shortage next summer is seen to hinder the growth of the Philippine economy in 2020, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) warned on Wednesday.
In a year-end briefing at his agency’s headquarters in Pasig City, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said such a supply crunch was possible, “especially given that the [water] concessionaires are now…kind of set back in their plans. Or…maybe they’ll be pressured to deliver better [services] in the coming year,” referring to Manila Water Co. Inc. and Maynilad Water Services Inc.
His remarks came after the Department of Justice (DoJ) reviewed, upon President Rodrigo Duterte’s orders, the concession agreements that Manila Water and Maynilad signed with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) in 1997 and found “disadvantageous” provisions in them.
One such provision is the prohibition against government interference in rate-setting. Another is for indemnity in case of such interference.
But Adoracion Navarro, NEDA undersecretary for the Regional Development Group, stressed that a supply shortage would have little effect on the economy, since the country was now experiencing the tail end of the El Niño phenomenon.
“It will have minimal impact…unlike during the peak of the El Niño,” Navarro said in an interview. “In August, we already declared that the El Niño phenomenon had ended…. Tail-end effects lang ito (These are only tail-end effects).”
She also said the possible shortage had nothing to do with the ongoing legal squabble between the government and the water firms.
“It’s because of the Angat Dam’s water level. We are not reaching the expected water level by year-end. [It’s] not because of the water concessionaires,” she added.
The National Water Resources Board has set a 212-meter target by end-2019 to meet the water supply and irrigation requirements of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces until next summer.
Also during the briefing, Pernia said the government’s growth target of 6 to 6.5 percent for 2019 was “achievable,” as gross domestic product (GDP) grew to 6.2 percent year-on-year in the third quarter.
He also said October-to-December growth would get a “big boost” from consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of GDP, attributing it to holiday bonuses and remittances from overseas Filipino workers.
According to the NEDA chief, besides the possible water shortage, other risks to economic growth are the trade war between the United States and China, natural disasters, volatility in oil prices, and possible delays in infrastructure projects.