WATER rate from the new provider Metro Cagayan de Oro Water Service Cooperative Federation (MCWS) is cheaper by P12 compared to the current rate passed on by the Cagayan de Oro City Water District (COWD) to its consumers.
Isagani Daba, chairman of the MCWS, said they will build their own treatment to supply barangays Bulua, Iponan, and Patag initially, where water supply remains unstable.
The MCWS, composed of 14 cooperatives in the city, will particularly serve its 14,000-strong members whom, he said, are fed up with the problematic water supply of this city.
Daba said their P120-million initial investment shall be more than enough to fix the water problem in the western part of the city.
The MCWS' authorized capital is pegged at P1 billion and is seen to increase if membership also increases.
“This business model is very efficient because the people is now the owner of the water they consume. The consumers will have a share of the federation's earnings and will also accept a patronage refund depending on the volume of the water they consume. Plus, it's really cheap,” Daba said.
“It's a way of really empowering the people of Cagayan de Oro,” he said.
He said the MCWS only plans to bill its customers P20 per cubic meter, compared to COWD's P32 per cubic meter.
This group is the same group who tried to buy and takeover the then ailing water facility back in 2009.
But Daba said they were not allowed then and eventually negotiations failed between the cooperatives and the administration of former mayor Vicente Emano.
However he said, a Supreme Court (SC) decision stating that public utilities should not be monopolized prompted them to create their own water district, instead of buying the COWD.
In the SC decision for the case of Adala versus Metro Cebu Metropolitan Water District, the SC ruled that section 47 of the Presidential Decree 198, which vests an exclusive franchise upon public utilities is unconstitutional.
MCWS is composed of the First Community Cooperative (FICCO), Oro Integrated Cooperative (OIC), Oro savings, Del Monte employees Cooperative, City Hall Employees Cooperative, Alliance Services Cooperative, Provincial Capitol Employees Cooperative, among others.
The MCWS shall develop, process and deliver potable water to the three barangays within ten months after the issuance of the Resolution of No Objection and all the necessary permits with the offices of the MCWS as payment counters.