Explainer: What caused Manila’s water crisis and why Duterte is asking Singapore for help

SINGAPORE — Earlier this month, Manila experienced its worst water crisis in a decade after taps ran dry for over two weeks for six million customers of privately owned service provider Manila Water.

The water shortage saw Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte turning to Singapore for help.

"We need a lot of advice from Singapore, and I'm sure the advice will go a long way to help us solve our problem, especially water,” Mr Duterte told Singapore's new Ambassador to the Philippines, Mr Gerard Ho, last Tuesday (March 19). Mr Ho was presenting his credentials to the Philippine president at the time.

Mr Duterte was particularly interested in Singapore's experience with desalination, pointing out that Israel and Singapore have the best desalination machines.

However, experts said that water desalination is too costly to be a viable option for the Philippines, though they noted that Mr Duterte could take a leaf out of Singapore’s books by prioritising sustainable water supply.

When asked how Singapore intends to reply to Mr Duterte’s request, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources said: “We are happy to share our developmental experience and support the efforts of our neighbours to build up their water sustainability.

“Over the years, Singapore has diversified our water supply and invested in infrastructure and innovation to ensure our water resilience.”

Find out more about the Philippines’ water crisis and why Mr Duterte asked Singapore for help.

WHAT CAUSED THE WATER CRISIS?

The water crisis in Manila was due to a combination of factors: Infrastructure delays, rising demand and the dry spell shrinking supply at dams.

Manila Water — the sole provider of water and wastewater services to more than six million people in the East Zone of Metro Manila — does not have access to enough water sources to cover growing demand.

The company reportedly has a shortage of 140 million litres daily.

Supply interruptions in Manila Water’s service areas started in early March in dozens of villages and spread to entire cities during the height of the crisis.

Manila Water draws water from the La Mesa Dam but the water flow to its treatment plant stops whenever the dam’s water level drops to 69m or lower.

On March 11, La Mesa Dam breached its critical level. In the following days, anxious citizens lined up in front of pumps and fire hydrants, while others resorted to fetching water from the swimming pool.

Public hospitals in affected areas also turned away less urgent patient cases.

Media reports said that Manila Water has seen a deficit since 2016 as water demand from its increasing service connections had surpassed its available supply.

On top of this, the company's Cardona treatment facility built to provide 100 million litres daily from Laguna Lake was only partially energised on March 15, three months after it was due to start operations.

New water sources should have been built, the media reports stated, and the government’s Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and the concessionaires should have expanded their infrastructure.

Dr Cecilia Tortajada, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Water Policy of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), said: “Such a crisis is usually due to decades of poor management and governance practices that increase pollution and contribute to overuse of water in all sectors. These situations don’t happen in one moment. The result is an accumulation of bad decisions and factors over time.” 

WHY DUTERTE ASKED SINGAPORE FOR HELP

Analysts said that Singapore has good strategies in place to ensure “long-term” water resilience.

Dr Tortajada said that its workforce has developed a robust and diversified supply of water over the last few decades, and it could provide valuable advice on how Manila could tighten its water management policies.

“Singapore has developed very quickly, so it has the knowledge of advanced countries but it also has knowledge of how to solve problems of developing countries, because you still have the workforce that worked (and solved problems) in the 1970s,” Dr Tortajada added.

“What can Manila learn from Singapore? Firstly, long-term planning and realisation of the importance of water as a strategic resource at the highest levels of government.”

Singapore’s water supply comes from four main sources: Water from local catchment areas; imported water; NEWater, which is high-grade reclaimed water treated from used water; and desalinated water, which is sea water converted into drinking water.

Singapore has five desalination plants, with two still in the works. Desalination now meets up to 30 per cent of Singapore's water demand.

Experts said that desalination is “not an economically viable” solution for the Philippines.  

Last June, Singapore opened its first desalination plant owned and operated by the Government. The plant cost some S$217 million, which included maintenance costs for the first 24 months.

Water policy expert Eduardo Araral from LKYSPP pointed out that desalination is heavily dependent on energy and the Philippines is already dependent on energy imports.

“Adopting such a solution could result in water prices being too expensive for Manila’s citizens,” he added.

The Philippines should tap alternatives for water such as Laguna Lake and groundwater, Dr Araral said.

Dr Tortajada said that even if the government is able to build desalination plants, it must also be committed to build an overall framework of long-term, cost-effective water security measures that ensure clean water supply at affordable prices for all.

“Just setting up desalination plants won’t work. You also need to know what are your water sources and build the infrastructure to transport the clean water to cities. Serious efforts will also be needed to reduce domestic and industrial water demand,” she added.

To solve the Philippines' water problems, all levels of government are required to consider water as a priority issue over the long-term, Dr Tortajada added.