CITY OF MALOLOS — September 2, 2026 — Malolos City Mayor Atty. Christian D. Natividad has underscored the critical flaw in the country’s flood and water management system, citing the existence of 38 separate agencies handling water-related concerns — a fragmented structure that forces localized solutions across 42,011 barangays, 1,493 municipalities, 149 cities, 82 provinces, 17 regions, and 1 autonomous region, resulting in disjointed responses that worsen rather than solve flooding.

“With 38 different agencies managing water and flood concerns across thousands of local government units, we are essentially trying to solve a national crisis with piecemeal, localized actions. Floodwaters do not respect barangay, municipal, or provincial boundaries — yet our approach remains fragmented, leading to delayed, duplicative, and ineffective projects that only make flooding worse.”

— Mayor Christian D. Natividad

 The Scale of Fragmentation

Mayor Natividad laid out the staggering scope of the problem:

– 38 agencies — from flood control, water resources, river basin management, coastal defense, watershed conservation, and disaster response — all with overlapping mandates and poor coordination

– 42,011 barangays — each responding independently to flood risks without unified technical guidance or funding

– 1,493 municipalities, 149 cities, 82 provinces — implementing separate flood projects that often conflict with neighboring jurisdictions

– 17 regions + 1 autonomous region — with no central authority to integrate upstream, midstream, and downstream flood management

“When every LGU acts on its own — one building dikes, another dredging, a third planting mangroves — without a single national master plan, the efforts cancel each other out. We need one authority, one vision, one national strategy.”

— Mayor Christian D. Natividad

Solution: A Unified, Nationalized Department of Water

To address this systemic failure, Mayor Natividad is pushing for the creation of a nationalized, integrated Department of Water — a single central authority that will consolidate all water and flood management functions currently scattered across 38 agencies.

This unified body will:

– Centralize authority over all flood control, river basin management, coastal defense, watershed protection, and water resource planning

–  Implement nationwide science-based master plans that transcend local boundaries

– Standardize engineering and nature-based solutions across the entire archipelago

–  Streamline funding and project delivery to eliminate delays and duplication

– Coordinate from mountain to sea — upstream watersheds to downstream coastal areas

“Localized solutions for a national problem will never work. It is time to nationalize our water and flood management — not to take power away from LGUs, but to give them the unified support, strategy, and resources they have long needed.”

— Mayor Christian D. Natividad