Resource information
The Water Resources Sector Strategy
(WRSS) supports implementation of the Bank's 1993 Water
Resources Management Policy, using the experience updated
internationally, with water resources and management. This
country Water Resources Assistance Strategy (CWRAS)
identifies the Philippines principal water resource
challenges, the current situation, how the Bank is assisting
at present, and what it should in the future. In summary
this strategy can be summarized as follows: 1) Bank
assistance should translate the rhetoric of water
conservation, and sustainability, into practical-realistic
programs, and policies; 2) focus should be on promoting
cooperation of local government units (LGUs), and water
users themselves, and, on following a "bottom-up and
top-down" approach, that includes active participation
of water users, in addition to developing infrastructure,
and management into water resources projects; 3) water
resource management (WRM) initiatives should respect
cultural practices, which have evolved to provide
sustainable WRM in a micro-watershed context. Indigenous
water systems provide clues to how WRM should be rooted in
the socio-cultural context; and, 4) prioritize support for
the use of economic instruments in managing river basins,
facilitating private sector participation I the water supply
and sanitation sector, and supporting the decentralization
of responsibilities for WRM.
