Monday, November 03, 2008 Water district to go full blast on computerization
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- As an early Christmas gift for San Fernando water concessionaires, the City of San Fernando Water District is set to activate its computerization system at the start of December this year.
Jorge Gumba, water district general manager, said the project, which has been under works for two years, will soon come to full realization for the benefit of consumers.
The computerization aims to speed up billing as well as payment and collection among sectors of the water concessionaires.
"We take pride that we are soon to be the first water district in the province to have a full operational system. Consumers would now have an easier time accessing their accounts and would be assured that their billings are accurate," Gumba added.
The P4-million computerization project would also expedite reading of individual water bills and avert the possibility of non-reflection or manipulation of water bills.
"With the program in place we can actually improve collection and minimize pilferage," Gumba stressed.
The new technology would enable readers of water consumption to digitalize the computation of water bills on real time and forward this to the accounting department which was also streamlined with the computerization system.
"We assure our customers that the transition to the computerized system would be gradual and would not entail additional increase on their bills," Gumba assured.
Although the system does not immediately raise the income of the water district, he said benefits would be felt within few years time.
In the province, the Mabalacat Water District is said to have a "computerized" system but is not as extensive as the City of San Fernando, according to Gumba.
Proving that it is all out for innovation, the City of San Fernando Water District has recently opened its new filtration system as part of its mandate of providing clean and affordable drinking water to its concessionaires and to reduce use of plastic bottles for drinking water. (IOF)
