THE Barangay Council of Macasandig has submitted a resolution to the City Council Environment and Natural Resources Committee for the eventual phase-out of groundwater deep wells in Cagayan de Oro.
The resolution is to enjoin the Cagayan de Oro City Water District (Cowd) to immediately adopt and undertake a program to phase out and eventually cease all ground water extraction.
It was made last Tuesday, November 3, and was submitted to the Environment and Natural Resources Committee in the same week.
On October 20, Barangay Macasandig also passed a resolution requesting the City Council to look into the complaints of poor quality and quantity of water provided by the Cowd.
"Despite having the most number of deep wells in their barangay, our residents continue to experience intermittent and sometimes interruption of their water supply, and the water flowing from their faucets are muddy and smelly, making them unusable for cleaning, bathing and personal hygiene," said Barangay Kagawad Richard Nixon Baban, the author of the aforementioned two resolutions.
Baban said there have been similar complaints from other Cowd consumers, saying the quality of the potable water is unfit for human consumption and poses multiple threats to their health and economic well-being, as they are forced to buy processed water at a premium.
"This current situation where our water consumers have been forced for a long time now to buy expensive processed water from refilling stations whose sole purpose is to clean the dirty water provided by Cowd of contaminants which is a blatant violation of Cowd's Quality Policy Statement to provide safe, clean, adequate and reliable water for a healthy life and sustainable environment and economy," Baban said.
According to Baban, the Cowd Central Service Area covering barangays Macasandig, Nazareth and Camaman-an hosts the most number of Cowd's deep wells (11 of 32 or 34.3 percent) and has the biggest production capacity of 63 million liters saily (MLD) or 41 percent of the 155 MLD total groundwater deep well production of Cowd.
Except for three wells dug within the last five to seven years, most of Cowd's deep wells in this area have already aged from 25 to 45 years, Baban said.
City Councilor Enrico Salcedo, who is the chairman of the Environment and Natural Resources committee, said in a live radio interview on October 26 that he is leaning toward filing an ordinance to ban the digging and operation of deep wells abstracting ground water from the city's aquifers.