IT was a nightmare for many Dabawenyos when water service was cut off in areas served by the Dumoy Water Supply System (WSS) Line 2 on September 16. This line serves around 60,000 to 70,000 clients located in the city's business and residential centers.
According to the Davao City Water District (DCWD) initial assessment of the Talomo Sump 2, "some electrical wirings have been damaged and a main electrical wire needs to be replaced." This has caused the non-operation of six booster pumps, causing the emergency water interruption.
However, DCWD was able to restore water service to some areas served by the Dumoy WSS Line 2 later in the afternoon of September 16 but at a reduced capacity. This is because only three of the six booster pumps were operating.
The water service provider said for two of the six pumps, it will need to procure some parts, which could take three months.
“Since this is a government agency, the fastest is three months, but since this is an emergency, paningkamutan nato na nga mabuhat nato in a week's time (we will try to make procure it in a week),” Jovana Cresta Duhaylungsod, DCWD Spokesperson, said in an interview with SunStar Davao on September 16, 2022.
Duhaylungsod added that they are simply abiding with procurement guidelines to not be flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA), which is a valid reason.
Luckily for DCWD and their customers, Talomo Sump 2 is already operating fully by September 18, 2022, allowing the water utility to fully serve all its customers under the Dumoy WSS Line 2.
While we rejoice at the availability of water in areas served by the Dumoy WSS Line 2, there are glaring issues that we hope DCWD could address.
One of the biggest questions many of its customers had was, "Why aren't there spare parts readily available to fix the pumps?" DCWD will not have to procure new parts and wait for another three months if it had spare parts. Likewise, it will not have to worry about being flagged by COA if it had spare parts.
Has there been an oversight when it comes to putting in place contingency measures for problems it may face in the future?
Since it knows that it is a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) and is bound by government procedures on procurement of items and subject to audit by COA, it should have made parts it needs readily available in its storehouse. In this case, why has it not?
This goes the same for its lack of generators for its water pumps. It is quite common to have a scheduled water interruption in some parts of Davao City when the power is out. For years, there has been a clamor for DCWD to have generators for its water pumps. In 2014, former Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte also told DCWD to get a power generator following water interruptions due to loss of power.
DCWD will have to strengthen its contingency measures to prevent a similar incident from happening. It also has to be more transparent with what it is doing in terms of maintaining or upgrading its facilities. We also need assurance from its leadership of what they are doing to efficiently serve the people who are paying their salaries -- the people they serve.
Dabawenyos deserve a better water service, which also means that DCWD has to always be ready to get things done efficiently.