WE ARE back to normal in Alijis. No water again for 18 hours. We can only make use of our faucets in the wee hours, disrupting our deep sleep so we can fill our pails.
When news that Bacolod City Water (Baciwa) District will partner with Prime Water, a private entity, all of a sudden, we get to experience 20 hours of this life-giving commodity. Not gushing, to be sure, but certainly a huge improvement.
Obviously, if we can get 20 hours of flowing water, it is not supply or even an engineering issue. It’s simply a question of competence. Or more correctly, I N C O M P E T E N CE. I can add I N S E N SI TI V I T Y.
I am extremely disappointed over the consumer groups that are opposing the privatization of the water district.
Baciwa has approved the unsolicited proposal of Prime Water, owned by the Villar Group of Companies, after it passed the evaluation of the Joint Venture Selection Committee in terms of financial, legal, and technical aspects.
Then all of a sudden, these consumer groups gate-crashed. They opposed the privatization of the water utility.
“The management and the board will object in the total privatization of Baciwa. This is only a partnership,” its board chair Lorendo Dilag said .
So why can’t they take his word for it? Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary-general Michael Dela Concepcion said during the concluded public hearing, “we are hopeful that Baciwa will explain their contract with the Prime Water because the consumers deserve to know what is going on. They should disclose the proposed privatization.”
“We are just asking Baciwa to provide clean, sufficient, and affordable water supply for the people of Bacolod,” he added.
That part I can agree. Hold Baciwa accountable for ensuring that it will provide clean, sufficient, and affordable water supply.
Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping once said that it doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white so long as it catches mice. It doesn’t matter if Baciwa is public or private so long as it can provide the consuming public with clean, sufficient, and affordable water supply.
The state-run Baciwa has been unable to catch the mice of water inadequacy, and China, following Deng’s policy of privatization has catapulted China into second place of the global economic superpower.
(bqsanc@yahoomail.com)