Friday, May 09, 2008 Talk back: We are trying to improve our services By MCWD MANAGEMENT
THIS pertains to the letter titled “Bad water district” sent by Mayor Tomas R. Osmeńa (Sun.Star Cebu, May 2, 2008, page A16).
1. The letter said that, “as a general rule, MCWD has turned down all major proposals to improve water supply and distribution in Cebu.”
We wish to clarify that:
0 The Johan Holdings Berhad’s proposal to supply water to MCWD was unsolicited.
It was made in 1995 and aimed to supply 100,000 cu.m. of water per day, utilizing the Mananga river, under the BOT Law.
MCWD endorsed favorably the proposal to Neda.
However, the said Malaysian firm asked for a performance undertaking from the Philippine government, which the latter
refused to give. MCWD should not be blamed for it.
High cost
l In 1997, Brown and Root proposed to supply water from Inabanga river in Bohol. It offered a price of $.80 cents per cu.m. That time, the dollar rate was P26 to $1.
If we consider the price escalation due to inflation and the exchange rate from the peso deterioration, the estimated price of the Bohol water ex-treatment plant would have already been around P60 per cu.m. now.
Also, the constituents and local government unit officials in Bohol opposed the project at that time.
l Vivendi proposed a “No cure, No pay,” scheme to improve MCWD’s distribution system.
They said that they would rehabilitate the distribution pipes of MCWD without cost, but would share in the savings if, after rehabilitation of the pipes, MCWD would generate savings.
But after three years of negotiation, they suddenly decided not to push through with the proposed scheme.
l Bechtel’s was not a proposal but a feasibility study in year 2000 funded by the US Trade and Development Agency to determine the price of water if the Mananga Dam (Mananga Phase II) project is implemented under a solicited BOT scheme.
The study concluded that the likely price of ex-treatment plant water would be from P50 to P60 per cu.m.
l The most recent proposal for additional water supply, which was not mentioned, is the Carmen project proposed by the
Ayala Group.
This was an unsolicited proposal in 2002 to supply 40,000 cu.m. per day.
The Ayala Group proposed to utilize the Luyang river in Carmen, Cebu, at P25.50 per cu.m. in 2007 prices.
The said proposal had reached the second pass approval already, despite opposition from some quarters.
It was about to be bid out through a price challenge, for other bulk water suppliers to participate.
However, Ayala asked that they be compensated in the amount of P80 million for the transfer of water rights in case they
lose in the price challenge.
The MCWD Board declared a failure in negotiations and rejected the unsolicited proposal.
Supply
2. The letter said that, “the water district failed in its mandate because it only serves around 30 percent of its franchise area.”
While MCWD admits that it is not supplying water to 100 percent of the households in its franchise area, its record shows that it is supplying 45-50 percent of the daily demand for water of its area of coverage.
And this is the reason why MCWD has not stopped looking for ways and means to augment its water supply.
It has been accepting private bulk water suppliers, of which it has three now: Mactan Rock Industries, Inc., Foremost Water Systems, Inc. and Abejo Builders Corp.
MCWD has been serving water to its consumers for 33 years, with 117,333 registered concessionaires as of March 31, 2008.
One registered consumer may mean one or more households sharing the same water service connection, or one subdivision with only one bulk meter shared by many residents, and one communal water faucet shared by 30 to 60 households.
3. The letter said that, “for the 110,000 connections, a big percentage is grossly dissatisfied with MCWD performance citing lack of water, very short and bad service hours, very low pressure and, worst of all, days without water service.”
There are times that the water district has to schedule water service interruptions to facilitate transfer-tapping of old connections to the newly laid distribution line, upgrading of its wells, scheduled Veco power interruption, etc.
These are usually announced in radio stations and in newspapers.
However, the water district also has some unscheduled or emergency water service interruptions, for emergency main line leak repairs, Veco’s emergency power interruptions, fire incidents, etc. that would cause the low-pressure-to-no-water-supply situation.
Moreover, low water pressure or low service hours in some elevated areas is caused by lack of water supply.
MCWD has been looking for more sources of water in order to augment its present net supply, which is an average of 115,000 cu.m. per day as against the gross daily demand for water of 250,000 cu.m. per day, some 170,0000 of which is the niche demand.
The MCWD Board recently directed the management to award within this year a total of 40,000 cu.m. per day water supply to private water suppliers at various injection points.
This volume of water is on top of the several in-house water sources development projects that are in advanced development already.
Leaks
4. The letter said that, “adding to the disservice of MCWD is the very poor response to reports of water leaks and repair of the same.”
As far as leak repair reaction time is concerned, it has greatly improved from 20 hours ten years ago, to an average of seven hours at present.
MCWD has set up six satellite offices, bringing MCWD leak repair teams closer to the consumers.
Leak repair teams have been operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We may have shortcomings but the MCWD Board and management assure its valued customers that it is trying its best to improve its delivery of services.
