Saturday, March 29, 2008 MCWD official calls for rehab of pipeline
An official of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) has raised the need to rehabilitate the utility firm’s pipelines to better serve customers and cut water supply losses.
Newly-appointed MCWD board of director Joel Mari Yu said the district’s water distribution system has been the subject of many criticisms from “unsatisfied customers.”
“The single biggest problem of MCWD, for a long time now, is (its) distribution (pipeline), which is very old and antiquated. They need to be rehabilitated,” Yu said.
In a recent interview with reporters, he said that because of the distribution line problem, MCWD is now only supplying 35 percent of the total demand in its franchise area and “the private sector is taking up majority of the slot.”
Budget
“Whatever money MCWD has will be used to repair, expand and rehabilitate the distribution system,” Yu said. He did not, however, reveal MCWD’s budget for the systems recovery project.
He said, though, that MCWD will save money as it will no longer establish its own water sources but contract bulk water suppliers instead.
“Anybody who wants to supply water will be considered. We will not spend money anymore on water supply projects or drilling,” he said. If the private sector will be given opportunity to supply MCWD, water shortage will no longer be a concern for Cebu, he added.
Yu said his suggestion to prioritize the improvement of water distribution has, “in principle,” been carried over by the board but no formal implementation has taken place yet.
Aside from the water distribution system’s rehabilitation, Yu said he is also lobbying for “transparency and accountability” in MCWD.
By being “more transparent and accountable,” MCWD will be able to put an end to complaints about its “inability” to improve its services to consumers, Yu said. This will also dispel fears of potential investors that Cebu has a looming water supply shortage.
“MCWD has a reputation that it is not run right. That’s why we will align our resources towards solving the problem,” Yu said.
Early this month, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña appointed Yu, managing director of the Cebu Investment Promotions Center, to the MCWD board. Yu replaced Adelino Sitoy, who had resigned from the water district board after being elected as mayor of Cordova. He heads the division that evaluates proposals for bulk water supply.
But Yu’s appointment was questioned by the Cebu Provincial Government, which has made a claim of having the authority to appoint members to the MCWD board. MMM
