Signature drive on water project pushed

TACLOBAN City Councilor Neil Glova has initiated a signature campaign on the water pipeline expansion project of the Leyte Metropolitan Water District (LMWD).

LMWD is currently having a problem with the City Government, which has not issued a permit to the water district yet.

Glova said the campaign, which started on July 12, aims to ask the President’s intervention on the problem of water supply in the city, although he said the LMWD is now addressing the issue.

The campaign targets government employees. Glova said they already went the different villages to ensure that they achieve their target.

“We didn’t provide specific time or number of signatures for this campaign, but maybe after a week of gathering, we will stop this signature campaign,” Glova said during a press conference.

“We have more than 18,000 water concessionaires in this city and our population is more than 230,000, getting at least more than 30,000 signatures or even more than the votes that the city mayor had received during the election is may be enough to say that Tacloban really wanted the LMWD to implement the project in the city,” Glova said.

He added that conducting a signature campaign in the barangay level is tough since they need people to do it, which the local officials of some barangay had already informed him on their willingness to participate.

More than half of the 138 barangays in this city, according to Glova, had signified their intention to help them in the signature campaign.

“Aside from the barangay chairmen who are supporting us, we also provided some copies of the papers for signature campaign in different media outfits like radio stations,” he added.

Glova also said the signature campaign aims to break boundaries of political alliance.

“There is neither pro nor anti in this campaign or opposition nor administration because the problem here is the non-issuance of the City Government of permit to the water district and water is a vital need of the people,” Glova said,.

Once the signature campaign is done, Glova said that they will send it to the President for him to take action on the problem, which resulted to the delay of the laying of water pipelines in streets located within Tacloban.

“Being a highly urbanized city, we are under the Office of the President unlike when we were still a component city which problem like this can be subject to be forwarded to the provincial governor,” Glova said.

City Administrator John Tecson Lim, when asked to comment on the signature campaign, said that the City Government is in full support to it.

He added they too are eager to know if what is going to be the outcome of the signature campaign once it is done, as its main purpose was for the insurance of having a good and sufficient water supply for the city water concessionaires.

“There is no way that the mayor will stop it because it is also what he wants to have — a solution for the problem of the city on water supply,” Lim said. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)