Urban Nexus experience

in Naga City, Philippines

Wilfredo Prilles Jr

City Planning and Development Office

Identified Nexus projects

• Top priority

– Decentralized waste-to-energy project in

Del Rosario, Naga City

• Others

– Peri-urban farming, energy production linked

to MNWD septage plant

– Applying integrated resource management

(Nexus) principles in the 2016-30

Comprehensive Land Use Plan of Naga City

Project status:

Nexus-inspired CLUP • Executive Order No. 2013-006

(issued Feb 20, 2013) initiated process of formulating successor land use plan for Naga

• Planning team organized. Sectoral studies completed

• Visioning workshop conducted (May 24, 2013). Initial SWOT workshop with ICLEI identified areas of Nexus application (April 2, 2014)

• Draft to be completed by end of November 2016. To incorporate disaster risk reduction/climate change adaptation (DRR/CCA), transportation, heritage zone overlays

• Mobilizes sectoral planning

machinery used in crafting its 10-

year CDP to surface long-term

development challenges for Naga

• Completed all 16 subsectoral

workshops in a four-level process

Approach Level Key players Output

Macro Subsectoral councils,

i.e. children, education,

women, etc

Broad strokes of

land use allocation

(mapping)

Micro Sectoral, i.e. social,

economic,

environmental,

infrastructure,

institutional

Programs,

projects, activities

supporting proposed

land use policies

DRR

mainstreaming

ICLEI-ACCRN project Local DRR/CCA

policies and

projects

Integration City Development

Council

Draft CLUP, 2015-30

Workshop flow

• Vision statement review

• Current reality dialog

– City level demographics

– Subsectoral challenges

– Hazards, risks facing the city

• Mapping workshop

Preferred spatial devt strategy • On Sept 22 and 23, sectoral committees met to

discuss consolidated outputs of the 16 sub-sectors and identify Naga’s spatial development strategy

– Sectoral outputs complemented each other, except where to locate Naga’s residential development

• Naga’s successor CLUP will go back to a compact city urban form

11 32 26

Close link to transportation

• Draft CLUP will incorporate stronger focus on

transportation, required under enhanced

central planning guidelines

• Transportation planning seminar in October

2016 arranged by NEDA and UP-NCTS

identified sub-national vision and key projects

– Will include major reform efforts: BRT Lite,

consolidation of trimobiles and PUJs, renewed

focus on NMT, and a central truck terminal

Project status:

Low-cost housing phase • Nexus experts helped in

improving design that yielded more space and improved ventilation

• Survived 213-kph winds of Typhoon Glenda in 2014 (“Rammasun”)

• Detailed drawings were prepared with the help of BISCAST students. Aids in project monitoring

• Demonstration Nexus housing unit now in place – at BISCAST

• Bicol housing summit (with national government support) next month will include a workshop on housing technologies, and feature Nexus approach

AFTER TYPHOON GLENDA

Project status:

Peri-urban farming + biogas • Peri-urban farming linked

to sludge treatment plant – Being established by the

Metro Naga Water District (Naga City + 4 other adjacent towns)

– Capacity of 56 cum per day. Project cost: PhP149 million (USD3.4 million at P44:USD1)

– Explore possibility of generating energy, fertilizer from sludge

Interventions • Ordinance No. 2014-076 focuses, not only on provision of

septage services, but of wastewater management in the city

– A policy statement that the city will pursue a sewerage system in partnership with MNWD and the private sector is incorporated in the ordinance

• As a result, there is renewed interest in wastewater service development indicated by the following – Survey of almost 1,200 households in Lerma, Tabuco and

Triangulo has been completed to collect data on water services and facilities. A partnership between the city, MNWD and BISCAST

– Bilfinger study placed imported equipment cost (excl construction, local equipment, taxes and transport) at around P33.3 million for a max 1,000 connection

– Can only be viable with the 40% grant from the national government under NSSMP

Septic tanks and water wells Nexus survey on water facilities and services

But… • Bilfinger study showed that vacuum sewer technology

is quite expensive – unaffordable for low-income households (around US$680 per household)

• City will scale down ambitions, focus instead on projects that can pay for the technology, e.g city public market

• Septage project already being implemented. Approved rates by LWUA, at P1.84 per cu meter, is closer to what the city endorsed . P1 lower than what MNWD wanted - so city residents will benefit from lower tariff

• For the long term, when society is ready, and a favorable policy environment is in place, city will pursue a proper sewerage system

Insights

• Urban nexus projects are complex reform

efforts

– Political: long view vs short terms for elected

officials, acceptability by ordinary citizens

– Policy: often requires vertical (national, sub-

national, local) and horizontal (city, other local

government agencies, civil society, citizens)

alignment among key players

– Capacity: local institutions should develop

the ability to get reforms done

Some suggested way forward

• Capacities of local governments must be improved to prepare bankable projects, levy local taxes and tariffs, and build reform constituency

• Co-financing schemes with national governments, international agencies should be provided to allow local governments to implement major nexus projects

• Regulatory and legal frameworks (including capacity for PPP) have to be improved at the national level to ensure that local governments have appropriate powers and capacities to manage local/urban development.

Some suggested way forward

• It is necessary to reform performance-neutral transfer schemes from central to local governments, which do not incentivize local revenue generation and collection.

• Need for a more calibrated 2nd phase of decentralization, where good performing cities and urban towns are accordingly rewarded with lesser regulations and greater access to financing by national governments and international donor institutions

• Participatory planning and decision-making can anchor reform efforts. Need to be coupled with civic education – why reforms are necessary for/by sustainable development