(Eagle News) — President Bongbong Marcos on Monday, July 24, urged the public to conserve water to prepare for the effects of El Niño, as he called on Congress to pass a law creating a Department of Water Resource Management.
In his second State of the Nation Address, the President said, on the part of the government , it has already begun preparing “buffer stock” and water supply equipment, and has also already installed 6,000 rainwater collection facilities.
“Kung kinakailangan magsasagawa pa tayo ng cloud seeding upang makapagdala ng ulan,” he said.
In calling on Congress to pass a law on the creation of a centralized water department, the President noted water’s “fundamental importance.”
He said the government’s efforts for water security “must not be scattershot but rather cohesive, centralized, and systematic.”
Early this year, the President issued an Executive Order that established the Water Resources Management Office under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Under the EO, the WRMO together with the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, shall “shepherd and champion” the passage of centralized department or commission.
The President issued the EO after saying the country was experiencing a water crisis.
