President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said on Tuesday, 28 March, that the government would rely on a new water management body to deal with the effects of El Niño on the supply of safe drinking water and irrigation.

The Chief Executive made the remarks in an interview with the media after attending a Pag-IBIG Fund event in Pasay City.

“They (Filipinos) may not have heard the fact that we have already organized the Office of Water Management precisely to address this problem,” Marcos said.

“I spoke on precisely this subject on what were the elements that we really have to get into place because we have a serious – forget it, let’s put El Niño aside, even without El Niño we have a problem with water,” he added.

The new Water Resource Management Office will work closely with the Office of the President and the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources. The President expressed the hope that bills in Congress proposing the creation of the Department of Water Management will pass soon to allow for a more focused approach to addressing water-related concerns.

Marcos, the concurrent Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, also talked about the water problem in relation to farming.

“Again, the water management problem that we have in the Philippines goes beyond – because it’s water – it goes beyond just agriculture. Of course, agriculture is an extremely important part of it but we are talking about irrigation – water for irrigation, water for power production, our management of surface water sa flood control and for irrigation as well.”