Philippines—Safe Water

Current water security challenges facing the Philippine archipelago include burgeoning populations, unsustainable land uses, and deficient wastewater services. At the center of the challenges is water—a steady, dependable supply is increasingly elusive in many parts of the country as flows oscillate between too much or too little. Unfortunately, such adversities will only increase in the face of climate change, which is expected to further exacerbate ecological imbalances as climate variability becomes the new normal.

The Philippines Safe Water project provides local government units, water service providers, and watershed councils in target provinces with the information, incentives, and partnerships they require to identify and address barriers to a water-secure future—yielding life-saving gains in access to water supply and sanitation services for unserved and underserved households in the Philippines’ most water-stressed communities.

By applying a systems approach that strengthens linkages between upstream and downstream stakeholders in the Negros Occidental and Sarangani and Palawan Provinces, Safe Water works to: increase access to resilient water supply and sanitation services; improve sustainable management of water resources; and strengthen water sector governance.

The project is expected to strengthen services for some 1.1 million Filipinos.

Sample Activities

• Improve the quality of, and access to, water supply and sanitation services by building the technical and managerial capacities of service providers, emphasizing the application of water data and information to design, operate, and maintain resilient natural and built assets.
• Increase planning and coordination among local, regional, and watershed stakeholders.
• Improve the resilience of upstream water supplies through integrated water resources management and reduce the volume of downstream demand by building a constituency of water-wise households and businesses.