THE Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) has called on the contractor to speed up the implementation of the P115-million project to bury 487 giant pipes from Barangay Busay to Barangay Lahug, both in Cebu City.
Acting MCWD general manager Edgar Donoso, on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022, said he wrote a letter to Joseph Frederick Pepito, authorized managing officer of JFAP Construction/Optimus Engineering and Construction, informing him that they want the project completed by Dec. 4 so they can start supplying water from the Lusaran water facility to residents in these areas.
Donoso said the project was started in November 2021 and should have been completed last August.
“However, considering that the completion of the works could not be achieved within that time frame, it was promised to and impressed upon the water district that your company shall complete the works on or before Dec. 4, 2022,”
he said.
Aside from finishing the project, the contractor should also restore the affected roads to their original state as these pose a danger to motorists, he added.
Rene Borromeo, a member of the Cebu City Traffic Management Board, said they’ve asked Rene Chambal and Gab Villanueva, representatives of the contractor, to provide the board with a concrete plan to help minimize traffic in areas where the project is being implemented.
He said the contractor assured the board that it would complete road restoration starting on Nov. 26, but upon inspection work was still in progress.
Last July, MCWD said it would lift the suspension of the processing of water service applications from the underserved Barangays Busay, Lahug, Apas, Camputhaw and Capitol Site when the Lusaran Bulk Water Project starts to deliver 15,000 cubic meters of water daily to MCWD.
MCWD opened the Lusaran facility last September and the latter can provide 20,000 cubic meters of water per day, enough to supply around 40,000 households, according to lawyer Jose Daluz III, MCWD chairman of the board of
directors.
Last Nov. 25, Daluz led the MCWD officials in opening a stub-out in Busay. A stub-out is a capped-off pipe or pipes coming out of a wall or floor that’s to be connected to fixtures.
Daluz said only 2,000 cubic meters or 13 percent of the 15,000 cubic meters of water that will be sourced from Lusaran river, which is being managed by JE Hydro, will be supplied as they still have to prioritize their old customers who have an existing water meter.
However, Daluz said they will bring additional water supply to Busay once the installation of pipes used for water lines is completed.
Busay residents have been relying on water rations from MCWD’s tanker that were injected into the stub-out in order to get water.
MCWD has around 100,000 service connections in Cebu City and around 200,000 in its whole franchise area.
Aside from Cebu City, the franchise area of MCWD, a government-owned and -controlled corporation, also covers the cities of Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Talisay and municipalities of Consolacion, Liloan, Compostela and Cordova. (PAC / PJB)