By John Rey Saavedra
In Cebu City, the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) aims to mitigate the impending water crisis caused by the El Niño phenomenon through its assumption of control over the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD). Ronnie Ong, LWUA’s chair, conveyed to the Philippine News Agency on Saturday that this takeover is intended to rectify the losses accumulated by MCWD over the years.
Ong said the water district had losses of 20.34 million cubic meters (cu. m) in 2020, followed by 24.542 million cu. m in 2021, and 29.481 cu. m in 2022.
“Siyempre pinapatupad po natin ang utos ni Presidente (Ferdinand) Marcos Jr. dahil sa El Niño. Alam natin ang spread ng MCWD sa dami ng served communities, apat na highly urbanized cities at apat na municipalities (Of course we are implementing the order of President [Ferdinand] Marcos Jr. due to El Niño. We know the spread of MCWD in the number of served communities, four highly urbanized cities and four municipalities),” Ong said.
Ong said losses incurred due to non-revenue water could be attributed to old pipelines carrying supply from pumping stations to the households, human factors such as mismanagement, and failure to upgrade systems.
The takeover, effective Friday, would also examine the three projects worth PHP235 million red-flagged by the Commission on Audit for not following the procurement law, according to Ong.
In a separate statement, LWUA said its Board of Trustees headed by Ong approved and adopted Board Resolution No. 35 allowing the water body’s partial intervention in MCWD for six months.
The partial intervention includes the appointment of a new Interim Board of Directors for MCWD by the LWUA management through its new administrator, Jose Moises Salonga. (PNA)
