TAPPING two dams in southern Cebu for bulk water supply is a long-term solution the Provincial Government is looking into to address Metro Cebu’s water problem.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia made the pronouncement after mayors from the first and sixth districts raised concerns on water shortage in their areas.
She said the Capitol will send engineers to Malubog Dam (Toledo City) and Maghaway Dam (Talisay City) to check the viability of tapping these for bulk water supply and see how much can be sourced from both facilities to augment the existing supply.
“There is this huge shortfall. I believe that the daily shortfall is some 240,000 cubic meters of water,” Garcia said on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019.
SunStar Cebu reached out to the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) but no one was available to comment as of press time.
Earlier, it said that saltwater intrusion and the drying up of some of its wells are key reasons for a possible water shortage in Cordova town and Lapu-Lapu City.
It has advised the public to conserve and store water to help address the shortage.
During Garcia’s earlier term, the Capitol entered into a joint venture agreement (JVA) with Manila Water Consortium Inc. in 2012 to manage the bulk water supply in Luyang River in Carmen.
In 2014, the P1.1 billion water supply project started producing 35 million liters of water daily for consumers in Metro Cebu.
Water produced by the Carmen facility was sold to MCWD.
“Although the Province, in the JVA with Manila Water, is supplying 35 million liters of bulk water a day sourced from Luyang River, that is not enough. The problem really is to develop more bulk water supply,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the Province will look into a public-private partnership with a firm that has the technical expertise in developing bulk water sources.
“We are very much interested to partner with competent companies with integrity,” she added.
The water supply situation in Metro Cebu towns and cities highlights the need for Capitol to be represented in the MCWD Board so the concerns of the mayors can be raised before the body, the governor said.
“We are also hearing complaints, but we don’t have a voice in the board because we don’t have representation. I believe all of the board members now in the present setup were appointed by the previous city mayor of Cebu. Perhaps it might be a good time to review that,” Garcia said. RTF