BAGUIO CITY – – Accounting of water resources in the Cordillera Administrative Region(CAR) was set into motion with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) regional office convening a joint meeting – workshop of the Task Force Water Resource Accounting and the Technical Working Group on Environment Statistics.
The agenda of the September 11 meeting included review of the agreements for the training on physical asset and flow account for Cordillera water resources, inventory of available data and to look into the issues and challenges for the conduct of the water resource accounting.
Attendees were representatives of the regional office of Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), National Irrigation Administration, Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Dept. of Health, Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Office of Civil Defense and the DENR Watershed and Water Resources Research Development and Extension Center and the Baguio City and La Trinidad Water District offices.
Regional Statistics Committee (RSC) Resolution No. 6 approved by NEDA – CAR Regional Director Milagros Rimando on August 20, 2019 created the Task Force on Water Resources Accounting of the Cordillera Administrative Region with PSA as chair and DENR as co-chair.
The resolution highlighted the accounting of the environment and natural resources of the region as vital in planning and policy formulation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, monitoring programs and projects, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the provision of data support to other cross cutting environmental issues.
It is also in support of the UN System of Environmental – Economic Accounting 2012 central framework, through the Environment and Natural Resources Accounting project geared towards the compilation of physical assets and flow accounts for water resources of the Cordillera
PSA – CAR Statistical Operations and Coordination Division OIC Aldrin Federico Bahit Jr. said with the creation of the TF on Water Accounting and with the RSC Technical Working Group on Environmental Statistics, work will now be underway for accounting of the water resources in the region in terms of present assets, who use it and how much is being used.
The water resources accounts will be vital for planning and policy formulation not only for the Cordillera but also to the other regions that are benefitting from the water coming from the watersheds of Cordillera, Bahit said.
The Cordillera region is tagged as the “Watershed Cradle of Northern Luzon.” **JDP/CCD-PIA CAR
