REPUBLIC Act (RA) 6716 was approved on March 17, 1989, more than 37 years ago. It directs the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to construct water wells and rainwater collectors, develop springs and rehabilitate existing wells in the country’s barangay, with a plain minimum — each barangay must have “at least one additional potable water source.”
The Act also set a timetable and a funding formula. Section 5 required the program to be completed not later than June 30, 1991, drew its funds from the General Appropriations Acts for 1989, 1990 and 1991, and directed the Department of Budget and Management to augment DPWH’s appropriations from a portion of foreign grants and concessional loans until 100,000 water wells, rainwater collectors and springs were completed. Section 4 required the DPWH to report to the public works committees of both houses of Congress within 90 days of approval and every 180 days thereafter.
What precisely is included in the 100,000 count? The 100,000 figure covers three kinds of facilities, not rainwater collectors alone. The DPWH’s own 1989 implementing guidelines (DPWH Department Order 41, s. 1989) listed a program package of 46,613 deep wells, 33,795 shallow wells, 195 free-flowing wells, 992 rainwater collectors and 7,530 springs, together with the rehabilitation of existing wells. Section 2 also leaves the number of facilities in each place to what is needed and feasible, considering population, hydrology, cost and institutional arrangements. The enforceable minimum is therefore the one-additional-source-per-barangay rule, not a quota of rainwater collectors.
Shallow DPWH accomplishment
The DPWH’s accomplishment record since then is shallow. In the 15th Congress, Sen. Loren Legarda filed Senate Resolution 45 noting that the DPWH had not built the facilities in all barangay (villages) during the preceding 21 years. Then-senator Nancy Binay asked how many of the more than 42,000 barangay had a government-built rainwater collection system and urged a joint DPWH, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Local Water Utilities Administration inventory and audit.
DILG Memorandum Circular 2017-76 directs local governments to pursue rainwater collection systems in public infrastructure and to use the collected rainwater for non-potable purposes, with DPWH district offices assisting under DPWH prototype designs. DPWH Department Order 141, Series of 2025, adds a beneficiary-identification system for the rainwater collectors program, issued in support of the 1989 guidelines.
Money has been allocated
In 2012, the DPWH reported 513 rainwater collection systems installed over two years at a cost of P78 million, with P50 million set aside for 2013. In 2016, it said P700 million was programmed for the nationwide program. In 2023, the DPWH announced P582.9 million under its I RAgenda 2028 strategic plan, distributed across 16 regions in amounts from P25.22 million (Mimaropa and Soccsksargen) to P47.64 million (Calabarzon, Bicol and Western Visayas). Those 2023 funds were for facilities in government schools and offices, public markets and rural health facilities, not for barangay-wide community systems, and projects are procured under the Convergence and Special Support Program line item.
A 2018 DPWH release priced a 4,000-liter collector at P200,000. A 2023 Nueva Ecija project cost P2.3 million for six school units, or about P383,000 each. At those unit costs, P582.9 million would build roughly 1,500 to 2,900 units in a single year. That is a rough illustration of scale, not a DPWH count, but it shows why a program of this size cannot by itself reach some 42,000 barangay.
Is the DPWH then “violating the law with impunity”? The public record shows full implementation has not been demonstrated, and the data needed to test compliance has not been published. RA 6716, as enacted, contains no penal clause; its enforcement runs through congressional oversight and audit. Pending legislation does not fill the gap. House Bill 7854, for example, would require rainwater harvesting facilities in new Metro Manila developments but does not address the DPWH’s obligations under RA 6716.
What should be done
First, the DPWH should publish the periodic reports required by Section 4 and state whether they were submitted. Second, it should release a barangay-level inventory of every well, spring and collector built or rehabilitated under the Act by operational status and by turnover to a Barangay Waterworks and Sanitation Association under Section 3. Third, the Commission on Audit (COA) should conduct a performance audit of the rainwater collector allocations. Fourth, Congress should clarify, by amendment, whether public facility collectors for non-potable use satisfy the “additional potable water source” requirement.
What did the allocated money buy? Since 2012, the DPWH has reported hundreds of millions of pesos for rainwater collectors, yet no consolidated public accounting shows how many barangay now have the additional water source the law promises. COA’s 2023 annual audit report on DPWH flagged unimplemented and deficient projects in general. A targeted audit should answer whether any of those findings touch rainwater collectors. Until it does, the DPWH should answer these — where did the funds go, and what exists on the ground to show for them?
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