Sunday Essays: Tangled wires: Potential hazard

Saturday, January 14, 2012

To CONSIDER a community as conducive for living, there are three important qualifications. First, the community must exude a pleasant environment. The citizens must be able to establish a good relationship with their neighbors and must be able to live in harmony with them.

Second, proper sanitation must be properly observed in the community. To ensure the good health of the residents, the cleanliness of the surroundings must be kept. Lastly, the safety of the community must be assured. It may be the safety from lawless elements or from hazardous living situations. This assurance and intangible trust for their well-being can easily be lost among residents if there is a perceived threat, whether the threat is real or not.

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Barangay Lubogan is a quiet village but its people live in constant fear that the tangled wires left hanging on street posts and electrical can one day electrocute them and passing motorists.

The tangled wires have been there for several months now and not one utility company seem interested to remove these.

Edith Rivas, 49, a sari-sari storeowner and resident of Lubogan can only look with fear as children play just under where the tangled wires hang.

Maurice Montinola, 47, also said they do not have any idea what these wires are for and thus their fear that this are open wire that can electrocute. Aside from that, the wires are an eyesore.

“The government should give attention to this problem and solve it,” he said.

To shed light to this issue, Barangay Secretary Vicente Balderas said that the road extension project might be the cause of the tangled wires. Since the road is being improved, it is but natural that the posts must be removed also.

But, it appears that it was only during the interview for this concern when Balderas learned about the problem. All that he can assure was that he will inform the barangay chairman.

The first step, he said, would be to identify what utility company owns those wires so that they can ask the company to fix or remove these.

In the first place, the concern is about the tangled wires and the fear it has instilled on the residents and not who owns the wires.