IT is encouraging that the impending El Niño-driven seasonal water crisis is being acknowledged at the highest levels of government, with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. making the unexpected but very welcome decision to form an Office of Water Management via an executive order earlier this week. From our perspective, this was a necessary intervention on the part of the President to correct the failure of Congress to act on the pending Department of Water bill, and we agree with the President's view that the Office of Water Management is a stopgap measure.