Recently, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) was in the news, not for its campaign against polluters or illegal loggers, but for the rollout of low-cost community water refilling stations nationwide.
The initiative, which targets at least 73 operational sites by the end of 2026, aims to make safe drinking water more affordable and accessible, specifically in underserved communities where potable water remains expensive, and at times, unreliable.
According to the reports, Environment Secretary Juan Miguel Cuna was quoted as saying that the projects are being implemented by its Water Resources Management Office (WRMO).
If the water-thirsty public, including officials of local water districts, are not aware of this office, blame the department itself or its field offices.
A check of DENR’s procurement activities indicates that in the Bicol region, the lucky recipient local government units are Libmanan in Camarines Sur, Ligao in Albay, and Casiguran in Sorsogon.
In the official website, the WRMO is shown to be under the Office of the Secretary while news reports identify its DENR Undersecretary for Integrated Environmental Science Dr. Carlos Primo David as its concurrent head.
Listed as recipients of projects by December 2026 are Palumbanes island in barangay Toytoy, Caramoran, which will be the site of a desalination system to serve its 2,800 residents, and barangay Calatagan Tibang in Virac, where a Freshwater Filtration System will be operational by the end of the year for its nearly 3,000 people.
The two barangays must have been identified by the DENR-WRMO as project sites on the basis of their similar population counts.
If they were proposed for inclusion in the WRMO’s water security program during the House hearings on the 2026 national budget, either one of our two representatives in Congress or even the governor should have claimed credit for it as soon as the year began.
Even officials of the six water districts in Catanduanes are most likely unaware that the DENR-WRMO are establishing water refilling stations to be operated by the water districts in underserved outskirt barangays.
Note that Calatagan Tibang, where VIWAD’s Cauayan water source is located, is not an outlying village at the very edge of the district’s coverage.
The two projects are said to be part of a P43.5 million water filtration aimed at improving basic services in communities most affected by water scarcity and climate change.
Each desalination system cost P2.775 million in 2025 prices while a freshwater filtration unit cost P875,000.
On the other hand, the water refilling stations were bid out at a project cost of P450,000 each.
According to Dr. David, the WRMO has been working with the Philippine Association of Water Districts (PAWD) to develop the program and is consulting local WDs to identify additional sites.
David said the ultra-filtration systems, which use far less power and are easier to maintain, are designed to sell purified drinking water at roughly half the cost of that sold by commercial refilling stations.
Most of those who have never heard of the DENR initiative will be surprised to learn that the WRMO was created under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s Executive Order No. 22, signed in April 2023, and now exercises administrative oversight over the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA), and Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA).
Under its 2026 tactical roadmap funded with P485 million, the DENR-WRMO seeks to expand its desalination and water filtration system project, provide financial assistance to water districts to extend service grids into unserved barangays, develop alternative water sources including infiltration galleries utilizing the subsurface movement of rivers, and install water systems with micro-hydropower component in upland villages.
It is also launching the National Water Information and Monitoring System, supported by the National Natural Resource Geospatial Database, to track every drop of surface and groundwater use nationwide through geo-resistivity surveys.
While the moderate rain brought by a passing low-pressure area has brought a brief respite from water rationing in Virac, VIWAD officials should not just pray and wait for the next storm to drench the island and fill its reservoir.
It would be well for them to study how the water district can work with DENR-WRMO in ensuring that planned water infrastructure and water demand management are resilient to extreme events and address the forecasted changes in availability, accessibility and affordability of water, as one of the objectives of the Integrated Water Resources Master Plan.