The Water Code: Principles, Obligations and Control

Cagayan de Oro City was hit by Typhoon "Sendong" in the evening of December 16, 2011. As a native of Cagayan de Oro, I cannot simply sit idly by and do nothing. For a long while now, the archbishop and a number of concerned citizens have been campaigning for the protection of the watershed. Nobody listened, the typhoon hit, and now hundreds of people are dead and over 4,000 are displaced. So I'm now posting this set of important statements from the Water Code, PD1067. I want everybody to be aware of this. We cannot allow this disaster to ever happen again, or an even worse one to break out.

Principles (Art. 3)

1.) All waters belong to the state

2.) Waters can't be acquired by prescription

3.) The state can allow use or development of waters by administrative concession

4.) Utilization, exploitation, development, conservation and protection of water resources are subject to government regulation via the Water Resources Council

5.) Preference in the use and development of waters will consider current usage and must be responsive the the country's needs

Makeup of Water

Water, in the Water Code, refers to water above the ground, underground in the atmosphere and sea within the territorial jurisdiction of the Philippines. Waters consist of the following and they all belong to the state:

1.) Rivers and their natural beds

2.) Continuous or intermittent waters of springs and brooks running their natural beds and the beds themselves

3.) Natural lakes and lagoons

4.) Atmospheric water

5.) Subterranean or ground water

6.) Seawater

7.) All other categories of surface waters, including water flowing over lands, swamps, marshes, water from natural or artificial rainfall and water from agricultural runoff, seepage and drainage

Even if these waters are on private lands, they still belong to the state. But the owner can use them for domestic purposes without securing a permit as long as the use is registered when the Waters Resources Council requires it. The council may, in times of emergency or wastage, regulate the use of the water on such lands.

Anyone who captures or collects water through cisterns, tanks or pools has the exclusive control and right to dispose of it. Water that is legally appropriated comes under the appropriator's control when it enters his facilities.

Obligations

1.) No excavation for a hot spring (or even expanding an existing one) without a permit

2.) No development a body of water without a permit

3.) No inducement or restrain rainfall without the president's orders during a national calamity and without a permit

4.) No raising or lowering the level of a body of water without a permit

5.) No construct drainage systems without approval

6.) If waste water can be reused, it must be limited and can't be for human consumption

7.) If a drainage channel is built by several persons the cost of construction and maintenance will be apportioned among the builders in proportion to the benefits  received

8.) If the owner of land on a higher elevations uses artificial means to drain his land, he must select courses the water will pass through that will cause the least (or no) damage to the owners of the lower-lying lands (and is subject to just compensation)

9.) If the use, conveyance or storage of water causes damage to another, the person responsible shall pay compensation

10.) Water resource projects that interfere with the landowner's use of the land must also compensate the owner

11.) Persons with an easement for and aqueduct can enter the servient land to in order to clean, repair or replace the aqueduct

12.) Owners of low-lying properties can't obstruct or in any way interfere with the flow of waters from higher properties if these waters are on their natural courses (except if they provide an alternative drainage) and those living on the higher areas can't do anything that will increase the natural flow

13.) No construction shall be made along a limit from the banks of bodies of water (3 meters for urban areas, 20 meters for agricultural areas and 40 meters for forest areas and no person can remain within this limit for longer than what is needed for recreation, navigation, fishing, flotage or salvage

Control

1.) In declared flood control areas, rules and regulations can be promulgated to protect bodies of water and prevent an aggravation of flood problems

2.) The goverment can construct the necessary flood control structures and consequently has a legal easement on the body of water

3.) Riverbeds, sandbars and tidal flats can't be cultivated without government permission and this permission won't be granted if the cultivation obstructs the flow of water or worsens the flood levels

4.) Any person living alongside a body of water can construct  works to protect his property from flood and can even divert the water's flow (provided it won't cause damage to another person's property)

5.) If a river or stream changes course and flows onto someone else's land, the owner can't make the government restore the flow to its original course (and also can't prevent the government from restoring its original flow and can't even be compensated) but the owner can become the owner of the abandoned riverbed/stream bed

6.) The Coast Guard can declare rivers, lakes and lagoons partly of fully navigable

7.) Floating of logs and other object on lakes and rivers can be controlled/prohibited during their designated season to give way to irrigation and domestic water supply and other uses of water

8.) Impounding of water in ponds or reservoirs can be prohibited if dangerous to public health (and said pond or reservoir can be drained for the same reason)

9.) A person with a permit can store water in a reservoir, provided that other people with permits won't be prejudiced

10.) A dam intended to store water may need an engineer for the proper maintenance, operation and administration of the dam

11.) The Water Resources Council can approve the boring and other operations to control subterranean waters in coordination with the Professional Regulation Commission, which will provide the qualifications for those who will undertake the boring (also requires a permit)

12.) Water from one body can't be transferred to another without the council's approval, and approval can only be made in consideration of the benefits, methods of transfer and other factors

Let us commit ourselves to the protection of our watershed so that this tragedy will never repeat itself.