Water rights amid a weak La Niña

March 22 marks World Water Day, a date that usually passes with dry speeches and photo ops of officials drinking from clear glasses. But this year, the irony is as parched as our riverbeds. While the United Nations dedicates 2026 to “Water for Gender Equality,” here in the Philippines, we are grappling with a more primal struggle: the fight for a drop of truth in a sea of corporate spin.

As we enter the peak of the dry season, the “weak La Niña” we were promised has turned out to be a fickle friend. Instead of the cooling rains we expected to replenish our dams, we are met with scorching heat that exposes the cracks in our privatized water systems. This brings us to the second dispatch of our “Summer of Scrutiny:” The Thirst for Truth.

In my previous columns, I’ve spoken about the Conscience of the Code. Usually, we apply this to software, but today, we must apply it to the “Code of Concessions.” Why is it that every time the water level at Angat Dam drops by a few centimeters, our water bills seem to rise by several pesos?

Just this January, we saw the implementation of another rate hike — Manila Water and Maynilad customers are now paying significantly more under the guise of “service improvements” and “inflationary adjustments.”

But where is the service? In many parts of the “East Zone” and the “West Zone,” the only thing flowing consistently is the excuse. Radical Accountability demands that we ask: if water is a human right, why is it being treated like a premium subscription service where the poorest are the first to be “disconnected” during a crisis?

The “Modern Rogue” in the water sector doesn’t wear a mask; he hides behind Joint Venture Agreements (JVAs) and “Consumer Welfare” press releases. We see this across the country — from the controversial privatization of local water districts in Pampanga and Sorsogon to the ongoing sagas of the “megadams.” These entities treat water like a commodity to be mined, ignoring the Unbreakable Thread of communal resource-sharing that sustained our ancestors.

This World Water Day, we must demand more than just “rotational interruptions.” We need a “Conscience” in our water management that prioritizes the “C-level” Filipinos — the Consumers who shouldn’t have to wake up at 3 a.m. to catch a trickle of water, and the Citizens who deserve to know where their “environmental fees” are going.

True Radical Accountability means auditing the performance of these water giants with the same ferocity they use to audit our meters. If the water isn’t running, the profits shouldn’t be either. This summer, let us not be distracted by the heat. Let our thirst for water be matched only by our thirst for the truth.