I WAS getting ready to call it a day last Friday, lulling myself to sleep by checking my Facebook newsfeed.
From out of the blue, a Messenger post popped up on my He Cares Bacolod chat box. It was a cry for help from Bro Noli, a K to 12 student, who asked “Bro and sis please pray for us. Gabaha na di sa amon huhuhuh.” Floodwaters have invaded his home.
It was followed by a photo sent by Sis Lyn outside the gates of Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) in Magsaysay Street. Employees were stranded because of rising knee-deep waters.
After which a chain of photos and messages of people stranded in their offices or of people wading in waist to breast-deep floodwaters.
Like the others, I prayed for deliverance for all who called God for help. I also got in touch with my friends in the province and Bacolod.
The response was that the members of the Bacolod City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office were frantically rushing from flooded area to the next.
Then it struck me. Floods were all over Bacolod and beyond. Is this a portent of things to come? Have we become collective witnesses to the new normal, not of a super typhoon like Yolanda but of heavy rains who can just sneak in to make our lives miserable?
The irony of it all is that the enormous amount of floodwater, our faucets in our community is still bone-dry. Because of the floods, Bacolod’s aquifer – the city’s main source of freshwater – should have been replenished providing consumers with steady supply.
The P1.1-billion bulk water supply project for Bacolod City Water District (Baciwa) is expected to deliver water to consumers between July and August. (The target delivery was later moved to October)
Last May, Baciwa assistant general manager for operations Jenelyn Gemora said the project was already 65 percent complete.
Gemora said “We aim to improve water availability for 20 to 24 hours per day. We project to serve at least up to 75 percent of the total population of the city but that would depend on the number of new applications that we will receive for the service area.”
In fact the Bacolod Bulk Water Inc. contractor bragged in a press release early that the project is nearing completion.
But hey, this is already September 2017 and October is just around the corner and it has been MONTHS since our faucets have been bone-dry for 10-13 hours DAILY. The floods could have been the silver lining, a blessing, because it has replenished the aquifer. But it turned out to be no business-as-usual.
As a consumer, my family is caught in a no-win situation. The massive drainage project along Singcang last Friday has been weighed and found wanting in preventing floods. The promises on bulk water project have been tested and found equally wanting in delivering freshwater.
Please, stop bragging, Baciwa and City of Bacolod! Just do it. Just deliver.
(bqsanc@yahoo.com)