THE Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) and the Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP) signed a 10-year agreement for the use of portions of GSP’s properties in Barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City for two new wells.
The new water sources will benefit MCWD’s consumers in Barangays Capitol Site and Kalunasan and will solve the water supply problems of the Cebu City Jail.
“We hope this will provide relief to the residents of these barangays as well as improve the conditions in the city jail,” said MCWD General Manager Jose Eugenio Singson Jr. (Singson’s resignation took effect last Nov. 1)
Apart from the GSP wells, MCWD also awarded a bulk water supply contract to Mactan Rock Industries Inc. for a 3,000-cubic-meter (cu. m.) per day supply for Barangays Capitol Site and Kalunasan.
As a public water district with the mandate to fulfill, MCWD is committed in finding small- to long-term solutions to the water scarcity problem, Singson added.
Due to Metro Cebu’s fast growth, MCWD is currently unable to supply the demand.
Barangays Kalunasan and Capitol Site are among the areas with inadequate supply since 2016 when the 2015 El Niño phenomenon severely affected sources, resulting in a water supply shortage. MCWD has since suspended accepting new applicants in these areas.
The water demand in Metro Cebu is estimated at 500,000 cu. m. per day this 2019 and it has surpassed the water produced by MCWD at 238,000 cu. m. per day.
MCWD’s Board of Directors identified the Mananga and Lusaran dams and a desalination plant as its long-term solutions to lower the supply-demand gap. It has also identified small-scale desalination plants and bulk supply projects as medium-term measures to address the water scarcity.
This month, MCWD commissioned two wells with a combined volume of over 2,000 cu. m. per day. It will develop 30 wells as part of its short-term solution to the water supply shortage.
Population growth, business opportunities and in-migration are factors that have contributed to the increase in the water demand in Metro Cebu. While the demand increased, overextraction, nitrate contamination and saltwater intrusion contributed to the depletion and shutdown of a number of sources.
Starting August this year, MCWD lost over 20,000 cu. m. per day due to various problems encountered by its private water suppliers and the effects of the dry spell. PR