Philippines

Country background
The Philippines, an archipelago of some 7,100 islands, only 2000 of which are inhabited, lies in the Pacific
Ocean off the coast of Southeast Asia between latitudes 5° and 21° North and longitudes 117º and 127º East.
Of the total land area of 300,000 km2, the 11 largest islands contain 94% of the total with the two largest,
Luzon and Mindanao, accounting for approximately 66. The country’s nearest neighbours are Taiwan to the
north, Eastern Malaysia and Brunei to the southwest, and Indonesia to the south.

The islands are home to over 87 million people with a population density of 294 persons/km2 but this is
unevenly distributed throughout the islands. The population is evenly split between urban and rural and the
largest urban centre is the capital Manila.

Topographically, the Philippines are part of a western Pacific arc system that is characterized by active
volcanoes, earthquakes and frequent seismic activity. There are 37 volcanoes in the archipelago and the
highest peak is Mt Apo (2954m) in Mindanao. The islands typically have narrow coastal plains with sand
beaches and numerous swift-running streams, but few open onto spacious lowlands or large plains.

With a tropical marine climate, the country is hot and humid year-round and is dominated by a rainy season
and a dry season. The summer monsoon brings heavy rains and dangerous storms to most of the archipelago
from May to October, whereas the winter monsoon brings cooler and drier air from December to February.
Most of the lowland areas are hot and dusty from March to May, but even at this time, however,
temperatures rarely rise above 37 °C, and mean annual sea-level temperatures rarely fall below 27 °C.

Droughts, and flooding from typhoons are common and annual rainfall varies from as much as 5000 mm in
the mountainous east coast section of the country to less than 1000 mm in some of the sheltered valleys. This
abundant rainfall is distributed unevenly across the country, but although there is a high degree of variability
from place to place, groundwater levels are generally high, and streams flow continuously.

About half the country is under cultivation and much of the original tropical rainforest has been logged.

Water resources and supply

Freshwater storage capacity and the high rate of precipitation theoretically assure the Philippines of an
adequate supply of freshwater for its agricultural, industrial and domestic uses. Approximately 70% of the
land area of the Philippines is considered as watershed areas (lakes, springs, and streams), comprising over
400 river basins and with an annual average rainfall of over 2,500 mm, there are ample, dependable surface
run-off and ground water resources. Demand is estimated at one third of the actual supply but even if
demand rises substantially potential problems lie not with quantity of supply, but in quality and distribution.

Water usage is divided among the three major groups: the agriculture sector, commerce and industry, and
domestic. By far the greatest user is the agricultural sector, which uses 86% of the supply, mostly devoted to
rice culture irrigation of which is managed by the National Irrigation. Commerce and industry use about 8%,
and domestic use amounts to 6% with numerous agencies handling distribution for public consumption.

Wastage and inefficient use of resources, pollution of both surface and ground waters, continued denudation
of forest cover particularly in the watersheds, means it is becoming more difficult to provide basic water
supply services to the growing population.

Saltwater intrusion and pollution are offsetting this abundance of freshwater and while there has not been
any official extensive examination of the salinity of freshwater, unofficial reports show that substantial areas
are involved and Metro Manila has been affected by saltwater intrusion since the mid 80’s.

While demand is increasing rapidly, fragmented management, weak enforcement and planning continues to
affect supply, and in 1995, a national water crisis was declared.

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The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme in its Country, Regional and Global Estimates on Water &
Sanitation gave a 2002 estimate for the Philippines as shown below:

Improved Drinking Water Coverage Improved Sanitation

Population
Total Urban Rural Coverage

Household Household Household

Total Urban Rural Total Total Total Total Urban Rural
Connection Connection Connection
(thousands) % % % % % % % %
% % %
78,580 60 40 85 44 90 60 77 22 73 81 61

Water and health

There have been numerous large epidemics of waterborne diseases throughout the country, particularly of
cholera and typhoid fever during the 1990’s. While diarrhoea remains the number one cause of illness in all
age groups, the decline in the incidence of cases is accompanied by reports to the National Epidemiology
Centre (DOH) of significant reduction in the number of food-borne and water-borne infection outbreaks in
the past years. Investigations of these disease outbreaks have identified contaminated sources of drinking
water, improper disposal of human waste and unsanitary food handling practices as the main causes.

Outbreaks of cholera have averaged less than one per year during the period 2000-2003 compared to 12
outbreaks a year in 1998. In 2000, a total of 303 cholera cases (0.4 cases per 100,000 population) were
reported in nine of the 17 regions in the country: NCR (131 cases), Western Mindanao (80 cases), Caraga
(32 cases), Western Visayas (18 cases), Central Luzon (15 cases), Central Mindanao (11 cases), CAR (5
cases) and Cagayan Valley and Northern Mindanao (one case each).

The morbidity trends for typhoid and paratyphoid fever have decreased from 33 cases per 100,000
population in 1995 to 17.1 per 100,000 in 2000 while the mortality trend has remained consistently low from
1980 to 2000.

Pressures on resources and supply

The Philippines suffers from poor management of wastes. The disposal of solid and liquid wastes has
reached a critical point, particularly in metropolitan Manila and other urban centres, to the extent that the
resulting pollution directly affects water quality and the nation’s food resources.

Pollution in Metro Manila is especially severe, and nearly all surface waters are considered biologically dead
during the dry months. The quality of water has deteriorated considerably during the 1990's and nearly half
of the country's classified rivers now fall below normal quality standards. This continuing pollution is likely
to seriously compromise the country's water resource potential for domestic, agricultural, and industrial use.

In 2002 around 80% of the urban population had access to sanitary toilets compared to 61% in the rural
communities, and overall nearly one quarter of households did not have access to sanitary facilities. While
the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) through its two (2) private concessionaires
operates four (4) sanitary sewerage systems, it covers only 11.5% of the population, the remainder depending
on mostly defective and poorly maintained septic tank systems.

Agricultural and industrial activities such as food processing plants, pulp and paper mills, textiles, sugar
mills, refineries and distilleries, chemical plants, tanneries, poultry farms, abattoirs and processing plants
contribute to the high levels of pollution.

While the majority of waste in Manila is collected (90%) most is disposed of in landfills or open dumps,
which create one of the country’s major public health problems through chemical and bacteriological
contamination of groundwater. Other methods of disposal of include burning, municipal garbage collection
systems, open dumping, composting, and burying. Very little waste is recycled and much of the remainder
goes into river systems adding to the pollution burden.

There are some government initiatives of protecting water sources. For example, the Sanitation Code of the
Philippines requires 25m distance from any sources of pollution to protect water sources used for drinking

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from contamination, and effluent standards and an environmental user fee system also serve to regulate the
disposal of liquid wastes to water bodies.

Water quality surveillance and monitoring

The national vision for safe water is given in the National Objectives for Health prepared by the Department
of Health in 1999 with its goal to increase the proportion of households with access to safe water to 91% by
2004. Safe water is defined as that free of bacteriological, viral or other disease-causing organisms,
radioactivity, chemical contamination, or turbidity and should not possess undesirable taste, odour, or colour.
Major policies on water supply supporting the vision are governed by presidential decrees, republic acts,
resolutions and administrative orders.

At the national level the key stakeholders in the water sector are the Department of Health (DOH) who are
responsible for water quality monitoring and coordination of the development of drinking water standards,
the Department of Public Works and Highways, responsible for construction of major public water supply
facilities, and the National Water Resources Board for licensing of water resources for development. The
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) formulates and revises water quality criteria for
freshwater resources and effluent standards including the regulation of the quality and quantity of effluent.

The major regional bodies include the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) who provide the
water supply for metropolitan Manila and nearby suburbs including water quality monitoring and the Laguna
Lake Development Authority responsible for managing the Laguna Lake Basin.

In metropolitan Manila, the Metro Manila Drinking Water Quality Monitoring Committee consisting of
DOH, DENR, MWSS, Manila Water Company, Manila Water Services and local government units monitors
the quality of water served by MWSS. In other areas the Sanitation Code (1995) requires the creation of
Local Drinking Water Quality Committees comprising representation from Municipal or City Health offices,
Water Districts, Water Suppliers, Municipal or City Engineer’s Offices, DENR, NGOs, and DOH, however
only a few local government units currently comply.

The Local Government Code of 1991 devolved the implementation of water supply services to local
government units while the national agencies remained responsible for policy development, regulation, and
technical assistance to these units. At the local government level the Provincial, Municipal, and City
Planning and Development Offices are responsible for developing water supply plans. The Municipal Health
Offices implement water quality surveillance programs and oversee the creation of Rural Waterworks and
Sanitation Associations while individual Water Districts administer water supply systems in provinces
outside of metropolitan Manila. Supporting local governments are the Department of Interior and Local
Government, who provide institutional development, and the Local Water Utilities Administration, who
provide financial and technical assistance to Water Districts for viable waterworks and water supply
developments in cities and towns outside of Metro Manila.

Outside of the national, regional and local governments, various non-government organisations provide some
technical services for the development and management of the water supply sector, some universities and
academic institutes provide educational training on water quality and treatment, and the Rural Waterworks
and Sanitation Associations are responsible for the operation and maintenance of smaller water systems.

The main source of funding for water supply is the central government, augmented by multilateral and
bilateral donors. Over the period 1992-98 the water sector received some 11% of total official development
assistance for all sectors.

In metropolitan Manila, there is daily monitoring of major parameters, with a complete scan every month at
all its major treatment plants. In rural areas sanitary inspectors take samples to provincial or regional
laboratories but testing is limited to bacteriological quality and physical parameters, and if the samples pass
these tests a "certificate of potability" is issued. Some limited testing is carried out where there have been
complaints of water quality particularly where aesthetic characteristics such as discolouration, or iron,
manganese, chloride, hardness or sulphide give cause for concern.

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3,000 sanitary inspectors nationwide undertake the majority of water quality surveillance, a number
considered inadequate, at a ratio of one inspector per 20,000 population, with the optimum number being
nearer 4,000. This shortage is compounded by the fact that water quality is only one of several functions
being performed by these inspectors in environmental health and sanitation. While all of the laboratories
accredited by the Department of Health are capable of performing bacteriological analysis, only 22% are
able to perform physical and chemical analysis, although this is supplemented by some District Water
Laboratories, and the use of portable test kits.

Water quality standards

The Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water of 1993 outlines various parameters to be used in the
analysis of drinking water quality. There are currently 56 bacteriological, physical, chemical, radiological,
and biological parameters to be monitored.

These include the bacteriological parameters, E. Coli or thermotolerant (faecal) coliform bacteria, Total
coliforms and Total Count, and among the organic chemical constituents are predominantly pesticides such
as: Aldrin, Dieldrin, Chlordane, DDT, Endrin, Heptachlor and Heptachlor epoxide, Lindane, Methoxychlor,
Petroleum oils and grease, Toxyphane, 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T.

Other chemical parameters measured include: arsenic, barium, boron, cadmium, chromium, cyanide,
fluoride, lead, mercury (total), nitrate as NO3-, nitrite as NO2-, and selenium and those that affect the
aesthetics and physical quality of the water such as aluminium, chloride, copper, hydrogen sulfide, iron,
manganese, sodium, sulfate, total dissolved solids, zinc hardness, pH, giving rise to problems with taste,
odour, colour and turbidity,

Parameters are also measured that arise from the disinfection of the water supply and include, Chlorine
(residual), Bromate, Chlorite, 2,4,6 trichlorophenol, Formaldehyde, Phenolic substances, Bromoform,
Dibromochloromethane, Bromodichloromethane, and Chloroform. Radiological parameters measured
include Gross alpha and beta activities.

Needs analysis
Although the coverage of safe water supply systems is relatively high in the Philippines there are still issues
confronting the drinking water quality component of the water supply sector. To address the poor health
resulting from the consumption of inferior drinking water quality in the Philippines, there are several
recommendations that will improve the current situation.

In particular, there are insufficient initiatives to protect water sources and arrest their deteriorating quality
and there is an urgent need to strengthen the water source protection program. Where there are laws and
standards on water quality as stipulated in the Sanitation Code, they are often inadequately enforced, and
compliance is generally poor. This too should be addressed as a priority.

There are no existing databases that can provide information on water quality for different regions to allow
for comparisons and trend analysis, to identify highly risk areas, and to allow prioritisation of water quality
parameters to be monitored in those areas.

There is also a need for sufficient accredited laboratories to provide national surveillance coverage, including
sufficient trained personnel to carry out water quality monitoring and analysis. To address this will require
the provision of additional laboratories and personnel, training in practical techniques and methodologies for
water quality testing and analysis, particularly in local government areas; and the inclusion of the private
sector.

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Referenced documents
1. Engr. Joselito Riego De Dios, Chief Health Program Officer, Environmental and Occupational
Health Office, Department of Health, Engr. Bonifacio B. Magtibay, Chief Health Program Officer,
Bureau of International Health Cooperation, Department of Health. ”Country Report for The
Philippines”, for the Workshop on Drinking Water Quality Surveillance and Safety, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, 12-15 November 2001

2. Kingston P. A. “Chemical Safety of Drinking Water: Identifying priorities using limited

information”, Reports of workshops held in the Western Pacific Region of the World Health
Organization, Quezon City, Philippines, 8-14 September 2001

3. UNICEF/WHO, “Country, Regional and Global Estimates on Water & Sanitation”, Joint
Monitoring Programme (JMP) for water supply and sanitation,
http://www.wssinfo.org/pdf/JMP_04_tables.pdf

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Appendix 1 - Map of the Philippines

Republic of the
Philippines

Capital
Aparri
Major Town/City
National Boundary
San Fernando Provincial Boundary
Baguio 0 100 km

Angeles
Quezon City
MANILA

Batangas
Legaspi

Iloilo
Bacolod
Cebu City

Butuan
Cagayan de Oro

Iligan

Zamboanga
Davao

Jolo

P Kingston 2006