LLDA [Laguna Lake Development Authority] experience in integrated water resources management

Laguna de Bay is the largest in-land body of water in the Philippines and one of the largest lakes in Southeast Asia. The lake and its watershed, technically referred to as the Laguna de Bay Region or Basin, encompasses the provinces of Rizal and Laguna, portions of the provinces of Cavite, Batangas and Quezon and a large portion of Metro Manila. It is host to a total of 66 Local Government Units (49 municipalities, 12 cities and 5 provinces) and is home to over 10 million people. The lake itself supports a host of beneficial uses including fisheries. Thousands of fisher folk families depend on this lake for livelihood and a thriving fish pen industry in the lake contributes approximately 80,000 metric tons of fish annually to the food supply of Metro Manila and nearby provinces. The waters of the lake as well as the rivers that drain into it also provide a variety of other beneficial uses including irrigation, power generation, industrial cooling, as navigational lanes to and from the various lakeshore communities, recreation and domestic water supply. Laguna de Bay is currently being eyed as a major source of drinking water for Metro Manila in the immediate future. Over recent decades, uncontrolled population growth, indiscriminate deforestation and land conversion, intense fisheries, widespread industrialization and urban sprawl have produced massive changes in Laguna de Bay and its watershed. The resulting problems to solid waste management, sanitation and public health, congestion, rapid siltation and sedimentation, unmitigated input of domestic, agricultural and industrial wastes, deteriorating water quality, flooding problems and loss of bio-diversity. The task of turning the tide of environmental degradation and of protecting and conserving the lake and its watershed for posterity calls for immediate and decisive action. Using the so-called 'Integrated or Basin Approach' to water resources management, the LLDA has initiated a number of innovative actions that could spell the difference in the effort to save this national resource which is Laguna de Bay. These include: a) The Environmental User Fee System (EUFS), market-based instrument designed to motivate polluters to voluntarily comply with effluent stands, b) The Zoning and Management Plan (ZOMAP) for aquaculture structures in the lake, c) The Shoreland Management and Development Plan (SMDO); and d) The River Rehabilitation Program (RRP). The module for River Rehabilitation developed over seven years has produced a model for multi-stakeholder and community participation and involvement in the task of resource conservation and management which is gaining recognition internationally.