A national body, either in the form of a Water Commission or a National Water Resources Authority, could be established in order to integrate the efforts of the national government to manage the dwindling water resources in the country.

This was suggested by Dr. Antonio Contreras, associate professor at the Department of Political Science of the De La Salle University, in his paper Water Policy Agenda for the Philippines: Is There Still A Need to Legislate? The said paper was presented at a policy forum on Water Resource Management held in Makati City and organized by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program for Southeast Asia (SANREM-CRSP/SEA), Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) and the University of the Philippines at Los Baos (UPLB).

Contreras noted that the proposed national water body would oversee the integration of all efforts of the government in the implementation of existing laws such as the Water Code, National Integrated Protected Areas Systems, Local Government Code and the Water Crisis Act.

On the other hand, he also recommended that instead of setting up a national water body, another option is for the government to lodge the function of overseeing all matters pertaining to water resource management to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

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