Ombion: People’s Water Council and Baciwa

IN MY earlier column this week, I reiterated my call to resist privatization of Baciwa or any other scheme that will loosen its effective control over the public water system.

I stressed that once public water services are privatized or given to a private corporate entity, everything will be determined by the market which will distribute water based on the corporate profit target and the consumers capacity to pay.

Simply said, those who can afford the corporate water rates will get serviced, those who cannot have to find their water supply somewhere else.

But more important, I challenged Baciwa, especially its workers and employees union, to reinvent their institutional and service paradigm, from corporate mindset to producer-consumers stakeholdership.

Thus, I put forward the concept of People’s Water Council (PWC) which is not a theoretical concept, nor a simple management system.

First, it is a social justice framework that ensures water is not treated as a mere commodity, but a life and a right of every human being.

We must return to the basics and educate our producer and consumer alike of the right framework on water.

We must resist the corporate framework of water as a private property and commodity.

Water is at the core of our planet; it connects and regulates every living organism on our planet.In indigenous communities, water is sacred because it is life for them and their environment.

This is the reason why countless struggles have been waged by our indigenous communities, farmers and homeless against corporate dams, privatization, and commercialization of water.

Our sources of water must be treated as sacred sites because water is just a physical form of the bigger spirit that gives us life as a planet.

Therefore our water policy, legislation, and ordinances must at all times protect these sources as a common right and penalize those who wish to control and commercialize it.

This is a big problem for Baciwa and its union because the orientation that has moved Baciwa for decades is the same corporate framework that Baciwa follows from LWUA and policymakers and legislators conniving with big corporate water companies.

This is why the fight for a different paradigm for our public water system, against privatization and commercialization of water.

It cannot be won by Baciwa officials and the union alone without the support of the water consumers. But this is a long haul.

Second, People’s Water Council (PWC) is a new way of effectively managing public water services system away from traditional and profit-oriented corporate system, and towards a producer-consumer stakeholdership.

PWC is an empowered stakeholder involving the service provider, the union, representatives of Baciwa water consumers, and special interest groups like non-government service organizations, social enterprise organizations, academic institutions, local churches, media, local government units, and representatives from communities with no access to water services.

PWC main tasks include the setting of policy and strategy, and schemes for water rates, distribution system, technology and equipment, water treatment, repair and maintenance, collection system, and grievance mechanisms.

Since Baciwa is a government entity, it can still abide by the government procurement policy when it comes to procurement, but PWC can draw policies and schemes that can accommodate as many suppliers as possible at cheaper rates.

PWC can be organized at the City level, with a base of six PW Councils in six clustered barangays, comprising the north, south, center, west, east and the upland barangays.

The Baciwa management and the union, and maybe together with some development and management experts, can set the guidelines on organizing PWC City and PWCs clustered barangays; guidelines on enlisting representatives of water consumers and the local government units, and the guidelines on accreditation process and requirements for groups and institutions interested to join the PWC.

Having PWC/s will minimize, if not prevent, any ill policies that might be imposed by the national government and the Baciwa Board.

PWC in place could also help the process of reinventing the public service paradigm of Baciwa and inspire other water utilities.

However, this cannot be realized if Baciwa, the union, and the consumers succumbed to privatization.

A privatized Baciwa will only mean the rule of ravenous profiteers and more miseries for the water consumers.

Finally, there are few other models similar to PWC whose experiences and lessons can be drawn for Baciwa application.

One of which is the multi-awarded Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc.

(AIDFI) led by its visionary and hardworking engineer Auke Idzenga; they have experiences in organizing water councils in communities they have constructed RAM Pump water systems.

Another is the Altertrade Philippines Inc. where small agricultural producers have built up their own water systems, and are responsible for their utilization, payments, repair and maintenance, and technology upgrading.

They can be tapped by Baciwa for PWC project or similar engagement.

(For feedback, email ombion.ph@outlook.com)