Friday, September 21, 2007 Water firm to complement water district
AS it opened its office in Cebu, the Pilipinas Water Resources Inc. (PWRI) stressed it wants to play a complementary role to that of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) in providing water to Metro Cebu residents.
“We are here to comp-lement,” said PWRI board member Anastacio Mon-tuerto. “I believe there should be more private sector involvement in water distribution since it requires huge investments.”
He said PWRI is committed to deliver “affordable bulk water supply” not only to residents in Cebu but to different areas in the country.
With its new office in Talamban, Cebu City, PWRI now has an area to lay down pipes, said PWRI president Antonio Tompar. He said the office and lot were provided for by the Lhuillier group.
PWRI was launched in February this year and is a consortium comprised of the Lhuillier group and Mactan Rock Industries.
PWRI is allotting P70 million for “missionary” water supply projects in selected areas throughout the country this year.
Tompar said the amount will provide at least 9,000 water connections to residential and commercial clients with a total capacity of 9,000 cubic meters per day.
He said PWRI has implemented missionary water supply projects in Panglao Island, Bohol; Jasa-an and Tagolo-an in Misamis Oriental; Mandaue City; and Aloguinsan, Cebu, among others.
Tompar said the company has also offered the “Barangayan Water” pro-ject, which seeks to provide water to depressed communites to different provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao.
PWRI relies on the Barangay Water Association and local government units to identify beneficiaries of the project.
The company’s is also undertaking a P40-million water supply project at the Cebu Ports Authority.
The project will supply 3,000 cubic meters to 5,000 cubic meters a day. (MMM)
