SOME local government units are playing the blame game on the water shortage currently being experienced in areas serviced by the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD). Taking the lead in the blame game are politicians who, more often than not, play to the crowd and jump to conclusions. Very few are the politicians who come up with a conscientious effort to study a problem before opening their mouths.
Heaping all of the blame on MCWD serves to deflect attention away from these politicians’ own inadequacies. Like, what have they done to help the MCWD in ensuring adequate water supply for the metropolis considering climate change and the unpredictability of the rainfall cycle? Or what are they doing on their own for their constituents with regards to water supply considering MCWD’s inadequacies?
One problem with the current setup is our politicians’ over-reliance on MCWD for the water needs of their constituents even if their jurisdictions have the resources to set up independent water systems. This in turn overburdened the already burdened MCWD, which is forced to give water connections to continuously expanding clientele even if its water sources are limited.
It pays if local government officials momentarily stop blaming others and for once look at their own jurisdictions for solutions to the water problem. Many towns and cities have water sources enough for their constituents’ use but have remained untapped because their officials are either not focused on this or, worse, ignorant of these water sources’ potentials. They wait to be served by MCWD instead of doing things on their own.
Consider Minglanilla town where two water firms, a cooperative and a private entity, are tapping the town’s water sources and distributing water to the residents, with the excess sold to MCWD. While there are already complaints regarding the firms’ service, the fact remains that Minglanilla water is cheaper than those supplied by MCWD.
Meanwhile, how much rainwater is being wasted because local government officials are either not focused on the matter or are ignorant of ways to trap surface water for future use? I am not an expert on this but local governments constructing minidams should help. And for Cebu City and other urban centers, what about campaigns for buildings to have facilities to trap rainwater? Okay, we have been talking about this for years but I still have to see the talk being translated into practice.
Which brings me to my point, which is that politicians, instead of jumping to conclusions and lambasting MCWD officials, sit down with experts to provide a lasting--because these are objective, wholistic and scientific--1solutions to Cebu’s water problem. I reckon that the University of San Carlos already have tons of data for our officials to study before making a noise about supposed water shortages.
I say sitting down and talking things out will achieve more than issuing threats. Provided, of course, that everyone is ready to admit his or her own inadequacies on the matter.