CITY Councilor Teodulfo Lao Jr. lambasted the management of Cagayan de Oro City Water District (COWD) for failing to restore water supply as scheduled after carrying out repair work since Saturday, May 26.
Lao said the schedule of the water service interruption was not widely disseminated.
"We hope that this series of interruptions would not lead to increase in water rates," he said.
The COWD earlier announced that Cagayan de Oro Bulk Water, Inc. (COBI) will install four isolation valves and two blow-off valves on two parallel treated water pipelines across the Bubunawan river. It scheduled water interruption from Saturday, May 26, at 8 p.m., until Sunday, May 27, at 6 a.m.
As of Monday afternoon, May 28, the water flow has not been stabilized yet in most areas.
COWD spokesperson Ladelle Sagrado said the repair was completed at about 1 p.m. on Sunday. However a leak was noted so a repair had to be carried out again.
The repair was completed Sunday at 8 p.m., and COBI resumed operation immediately at about 9:45 p.m.
However, COBI encountered some problems again and had to shut down operations to facilitate the needed repairs.
Supply was finally restored by 12 noon Monday in some parts of Barangay Carmen like in Silver Creek, and also Iponan.
According to Sagrado, the repair is part of COBI's efforts to meet the 60,000- cubic-meter water requirement per day in Cagayan de Oro.
It can be recalled that COBI promised to deliver the required water supply last May 15, but failed to do so.
Sagrado said COBI has asked again to extend the deadline to June 15.
"Hopefully by June 15, they will be able to deliver the 60,000 cubic meters per day requirement because that is what has been stipulated in the contract, hopefully by then, dili na ta magproblema sa tubig," she said.
But for Councilor Lao, COBI's failure to address the 60,000 cubic meter per day requirement is already a breach of contract.
"Before unta sila lagi ningsugot sa pagsulod sa joint venture agreement, they should have foreseen these problems, kung makaya ba gyud ang gi-stipulate sa contract," Lao said.