ILOILO City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog has given the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) a year of reprieve before talks of privatization after a dialogue with its management and board of directors.
The dialogue was called in order to immediately resolve the water crisis bugging the city in 45 days.
Mabilog said the option of privatization was not dialogue in the dialogue as discussion focused on the delivery of substantial water supply to its concessioners.
The mayor said that privatization will only be open and discussed after one year if MIWD fails to deliver substantial water to its concessionaires.
Mabilog said he is more concerned on the delivery of substantial water to the city despite the internal conflict hounding the water district.
He said he will leave the job of resolving the conflict inside the water firm to its management and board of directors.
At the dialogue, both the management and board agreed to deliver 42,000 cubic meters of water currently treated at the MIWD siltation ponds and about 20,000 cubic meters from the bulk water delivery through a competitive bidding.
Mabilog said there was a failure of bidding in the first bidding and there exists an urgent need to select a winning bidder to supply bulk water to the concessionaires.
Present in Monday's dialogue were board chairman Celso Javelosa and MIWD general manager Le Jayme Jalbuena.
Earlier, Mabilog challenged both MIWD management and board to get their acts together and resolve the water crisis within 30 days or until the end of July.
The city mayor also said he will personally lead an indignation rally in front of MIWD offices if both management and board refuse to settle their internal differences. (Lydia C. Pendon)