NOVEMBER 3 marks the anniversary of the Davao City Water District. Unknown to many, DCWD started off as a semi-government corporation because in the early stages from its inception the utility has to rely mainly from government for funds. 1973 was a year replete with anxiety. It was the second year of the martial law regime when arrests were made but on the other hand some vital infrastructures were built and these include water and power utilities.
It used to be that Dabawenyos would rely mainly on rainwater. There used to be some sort of a water system in place but one has to use manual pump to draw water from badly deteriorated distribution pipe. More often whatever water you can draw from the system is used mainly for laundry, bath, cleaning the lavatories and lawn. Houses have water tanks which were veritable spawning grounds for mosquitoes if no sieve is secured on the tank. Otherwise you have wrigglers in your drinking water but better that than the contaminated water from leaking metropolitan water system.
Fast forward to March 21, 1992. The Supreme Court ruled that water districts were in fact government corporation. While this jolted somewhat the management of DCWD it cannot quarrel with the High Court and therefore proceeded to do its mandate. It evolved and became famous for two things: The most viable and stands alone in category A of among local utilities outside of Metro Manila and added to that it produces the best water in the world although some would say it comes second to Switzerland.
DCWD has expanded dramatically. Today it prides itself with eight water systems which derive water from ground water and one from the surface water of Malagos. The biggest asset which feeds sparkling spring water to consumers in the urban center populated by commercial and heavily populated residential areas is Dumoy water system. Thirty six production wells drew water from the Dumoy aquifer. Two more deep wells are currently being drilled to sustain the need of increasing commercial and residential consumers. The most recent systems are Panacan and Cabantian where water aquifers are scant and where water was present albeit the quality is not at par with those in Dumoy and in other systems. DCWD had invested substantially in search for either non-organic or not-too-heavily mineralized sources. Although potable, the taste and color are being complained of by consumers who are of the impression that Panacan and Cabantian would yield the same quality of ground water that is drawn from Dumoy. Sadly this is not the case.
The Board of Directors of DWCD, headed by Ed Bangayan, however is living no stone unturned to look for the water vein that would yield the kind of water that would proximate the quality of Dumoy. Just this September, the search ended when a newly drilled well produced water the quality of which proximate that in Dumoy. It is now tapped to the system resulting in the increase of pressure all the way to Sasa.
The biggest challenge DCWD is facing is Davao City’s exponential growth of commercial and population all needing a sustained supply of potable water. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte had sounded the alarm if only for DCWD to be forearmed. To its credit, DCWD has in the pipeline several viable options.
Davao City stands alone in the category of having the richest water resources. Ten of the present 36 production wells in Dumoy generates artesian water which indicates adequacy of ground and confined water from its aquifers. The DCWD Board however looks far ahead several generations from the present and looked into its other resource: the virginal and exceptional quality of Tamugan and Panigan rivers.
Tamugan river meanders through the ridges of Barangay Tambobong and all the way to Kidali, while Panigan runs through the barangays of Tawantawan, Kadalian, Carmen and Panigan. The two rivers meet in Barangay Maligatong where Panigan river terminates. Tamugan river runs all the way to Davao river which is visible in the national highway in upper Calinan.
Cradled by Panigan and Tambobong is Mt. Tipolog, the main recharged area of both Tamogan and Panigan river. From the river banks copious supply of sparking spring water are supplied to the twin rivers. This is the same water that DCWD will tap for the vast urban population, commercial and industrial hubs of the city and the other growth centers around it.
Tapping Tamugan and Panigan rivers is not as easy as drilling production wells in Dumoy. The financial requirement to put up the needed infrastructures in Maligatong and the cost and laying of main pipes that would lead separately to Toril, Calinan, Tugbok, Mandug, Cabantian and to Panacan and beyond are mind boggling. Add to the cost of reservoirs and this can run to more than P3-billion by rough estimates. DCWD board has to have compromises to fullfill its goal and mandate. Mr. Bangayan, the man trusted by Mayor Duterte to achieve that goal, is a savvy businessman.
“We have to find a solution. A project as huge as this one would require an equally huge capital investment. We have to have a partner that will deliver bulk water to our nearest reservoir in Maligatong and then for DWCD to distribute this to the water systems which will be consequently be expanded. What matters most is to have a sustainable supply of water in every home and commercial establishments without any perceptible increase but eventual reduction of rates”, Chairman Bangayan said. The distribution pipes and reservoirs will be to the cost of DCWD.
There is no turning back in tapping Tamugan and Panigan rivers. Surveys of areas where the main lines will pass through and sites identification for locations of reservoirs are ongoing.
While the task looks daunting the more challenging issue is how to keep away banana plantations from the recharge areas. While in paper, demarcations lines had been drawn and pledges by banana growers not to encroach into the recharge zone and in no-tillage areas, the truth is that these have been disregarded with impunity. I have personally surveyed the areas and if this will go on unabated we might as well kiss our sustainable source of water goodbye.
So brazen and wanton are the abuses done by banana corporate farms they even have the gall to till and plant bananas in the slopes of Tamogan in Tambobong. Some corporate farms in Panigan put up a modicum of buffer zones in compliance. But this is more for photography to show they complied. A 50-meter stretch of newly planted trees does not a buffer zone make.
Even the Uvu-Manobo indigenous people are wary about the effects of unfettered tillage in the recharge areas of Tamogan and Panigan rivers and to their environment. Unfortunately, management of corporate farms have no conscience or qualms about what the effects of their banana farms on the environ and on the two most important rivers that will be Davao City’s most vital water resources. They lured land owners to lease their lands for banana plantations. The P15,000 per month per hectare rent is instant bonanza for settlers who live below poverty levels.
DCWD moreover takes some steps to mitigate the aggressive incursion of mono-crops in the area. Early on, the water district helped create a cooperative for the Uvu-Manobo tribe and provide them with rubber tree seedlings. A little over fiver years later, the trees showed they pregnant with the valuable sap. Last July, as a new member of DCWD Board and co-chairs the Environment Committee, I visited Tambobong and met with the officers of the Coop in Kidali. “Busog nakaayo ang among gitanum nga rubber trees pero walami’y magamit ngaheman sir. Maayo unta ug madungagan ninyo and inyong hinabang namo,” Datu Joshua Andip pleaded to me. (“Our rubber trees are ready for tapping but we do not have tapping knives and accessories”). I made the pledge before them that yes I will see to it that you will get what you needed.
Last August, the DCWD Board approved their request. I wished then that the process could be faster for the cost can be addressed by petty cash. I forgot that DCWD is a government corporation and have to follow the rigors of some idiotic bureaucratic processes. Be that as it may, toward the end of September, the coop officials accompanied by their tribal chieftain Joel Unad, received the tapping knives and accessories in a formal but simple ceremonies timed with the regular meeting of the Board.
rIn his moving statement Datu Unad emotionally delivered a brief remarks. “Sa lahat ng mga nangangako ng tulong sa aming tribu, ang DCWD langang may puso. Pinapadalhan ninyo kami ng mga doctors para gamutin ang aming maysakit, pinapaaral ninyo ang aming mga anak at binibigyan ng gamit para makapagaral. Binibigyan ninyo kami ng mga pananim. At higit sa lahat binubuhay ninyo ang aming mga ilog. Napakalaking utang na loob naming sa inyo,” Unad said.
Last month, toward the middle of October, Datu Dominador Monoy, tribal leader of sitio Biha in Kidali, and member of the coop, started tapping his rubber trees. About 230 trees were planted in his one hectare farm. According to him, four trees would yield one kilo of raw rubber. We did a simple math as to how much will he be able to earn monthly and his eyes sparkled. Surely he will earn 35 times more than those who leased their farm for banana plantation.
Encouraged by the prospects of his one-hectare rubber tree plantation Datu Monoy said he will also try planting cacao and coffee in between his rubber trees. As he says this, he points at the luxuriant “Tahiti” grass growing in some parts of his farm which he said will be processed also into brooms.
DCWD is not going into war against corporate farms. But they should address it to their conscience the need to rehabilitate the forest covers in the main recharge areas in Tambobong and Panigan. There are happy compromises. Those operating adjacent to the ridges of Panigan and Tamogan must establish buffer zones. To add to the income of landowners from whom the pay paltry lease on the land they develop, they should provide additional means of livelihood by providing them seedlings. Buffer zones must extend beyond the ridges and should include the slopes towards the river banks. These can be veritable agro-forests. The proceeds should belong to the agro-forest farmers and corporate firms shall have no share from the profit even as they provide seedlings and technical assistance from the start.
By agro-forest, we mean cacao, coffee, rubber trees and bamboos to name a few. These varieties provide sustainable livelihood for the indigenous people. In short, we have to recreate the forest which the IPs will nurture as this provides them with decent livelihood.
This must be addressed to corporate farms. If they persist and go on with their intransigence and continue luring landowners and tribal communities with cash incentives, then I will take a personal crusade outside the ambit of DCWD to bring the issue before the city government and to the next generation, my children included, and to the indigenous tribes who had been driven to the hills by those who have the means and the might.
Why must these be done? Because water is life. And DCWD will continue to provide that from this generation to generations.