RESIDENTS of Barangay Lahug and other upland areas in Cebu City that don’t have enough water will just have to put up with the problem until the dry spell ends.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña said yesterday he will not allow the Department of Public Services (DPS) to deliver water to households that have no water supply, as this would deplete the resources of the City Government.
Besides, he said, the City did not force the residents to live in areas where water supply is a problem.
Some sitios in at least 12 upland villages have reportedly been relying on the water delivered by the DPS’ water tankers once every two weeks.
In Lahug, the mayor said he will leave it to Barangay Captain Mary Ann de los Santos to solve the problem, since she has previously said City Hall has not been helping her barangay.
u2018We don’t work that way’
Among those affected are some areas in Lahug, Guba, Mabini, Talamban, Agsungot, Malubog, Pungol Sibugay, Sirao, Taptap and Sudlon I.
“Let me set the policy straight. Many of these areas are already problem areas for water but they insist on moving there, and they demand that the City supply them water. The answer is no, we don’t work that way. They’re abusing the resources of the government,” Osmeña said yesterday.
Bringing water tankers and trucks to deliver water to the mountain barangays would only encourage more people to live in problematic areas, he told a news conference yesterday.
“If you go to a place that always has no water, don’t go there and tell the City, ‘Hoy, tagai mi ug truck’ (Send us a truck.) Unsa man na? Why did they go there in the first place? Because they like the view. Okay, fine, then get your own water. It’s things like that that will drive up the cost of basic services.
Before you know it, they’ll all move there and we have to buy 10 trucks,” he continued.
Osmeña said if the City had relocated the residents in those areas, then the City would have the obligation to provide them with water.