APART from developing more bulk water sources, the Provincial Government is also interested in expanding its existing partnership with a private consortium.
The pronouncement was made by Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia in an interview Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019, as she revealed that there are still some households in the province that do not have access to safe, clean water despite already having taps installed.
“We will also be discussing the possible expansion of our partnership to include not just the supply of bulk water, but to include as well the distribution of water because as I understand it, up to now, since many, many years, that has been the case. The MCWD (Metropolitan Cebu Water District) has been unable to meet the total water service connection demand,” she said.
The governor met with officials of the Manila Water consortium Wednesday to review the terms of the Capitol’s existing partnership with the group.
During Garcia’s earlier stint in 2012, the Capitol had entered into a joint venture agreement with the Manila Water consortium to manage the bulk water supply in Luyang River in the northern town of Carmen.
In 2014, the P1.1-billion water supply project started producing 35 million liters of water daily to homes in Metro Cebu.
But the governor lamented that this might not be enough to meet the MCWD’s total demand, which is reportedly running at over 230 million liters a day.
“I had always heard that they were able to meet only up to 30 to 35 percent. The last time they were here, they said they were now meeting up to 42 percent, but that is still well below. Perhaps it might be time to look into the water distribution part of this total water supply program for the Cebuanos,” Garcia said.
On Aug. 5, the Provincial Board approved the first supplemental budget of the Garcia administration amounting to P1.3 billion, of which P50 million was for the Capitol’s water supply program to provide “abundant and clean” water supply through the installation of Level III access to safe water, bulk water system, and water supply in government facilities.
Garcia said among the areas experiencing shortage and/or lack of water supply are the towns of Moalboal and Carmen. (RTF)