Despite its relatively abundant water supplies, the Philippines is currently faced with a crisis of sustainability in its water sector. This has been brought about by the uncontrolled extraction of raw water and the discharge of effluent in an environmentally unsustainable manner. Both private and public end-users in agricultural irrigation, industry and the water supply utilities sector itself have contributed to this situation.

In addition to large-scale users, numerous small private users extract water from groundwater aquifers and surface water in an uncontrolled way. In some regions of the country, non-replenishable water resources have already been exploited and exhausted. To add to the problem, there is a lack of coordination among Philippine institutions tasked with regulating national water resources. Instruments exist to manage the country’s water resources but are not being enforced at the local level.

In response to this problem, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has appointed the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) to develop the Raw Water Pricing Project in partnership with the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).