The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has transferred to the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) control of the entire irrigation infrastructure and water treatment facilities it built to provide water to thousands of hectares of agricultural land in Laguna and Cavite.

Documents of the transfer surfaced only recently even as the formal approval of the resolution on the transfer of the pipelines and facilities in Putatan, Muntinlupa City to MWSS was made by NIA board on November 17, 2008.

These facilities, which pump water from Laguna de Bay to thousands of hectares of land in Dasmariñas, Carmona, Cavite, San Pedro, Sta. Rosa, Canlubang, Biñan, and other areas, have been rendered inutile with the conversion of farms in these towns into high-end subdivisions, industrial parks and commercial centers.

Water from Laguna de Bay is treated by the NIA facility before it is distributed to rice fields on both sides of the Southern Luzon Expressway. Instead of rice fields, only subdivisions can be seen on these stretches now.

The loss of agricultural areas to residential subdivisions and commercial centers had been caused by the approval of land conversions by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the reclassification of many of these properties into commercial zones in spite of protests by farmers belonging to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and its provincial affiliates in Laguna and Cavite.