MCWD appeals to NWRB: Stop allowing private suppliers

CEBU, Philippines - The Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) has asked the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) to stop giving water rights to private water suppliers.

This, as the MCWD board passed a resolution to stop ground water extraction and digging of deep wells in Metro Cebu.

MCWD BOD chairman Rene Mercado said that they appealed to NWRB to stop issuing water permits to private suppliers who operate right away without waiting for approval from MCWD.

Mercado said they signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with NWRB last April 4, of this year, in order to delineate the roles of each agency in the utilization of the Metro Cebu Groundwater Model.

Mercado cited the obligations of NWRB, based on the MOA, which include using the Groundwater Model for evaluation of water permit applications, formulation of policies of groundwater management in Metro Cebu and the provision of data to MCWD on all approved water permits within the model area.

With these obligations stated in the MOA, Mercado said that NWRB has only issued temporary permits to water suppliers. But even so, some water suppliers still operate even without MCWD’s nod. 

“Bisan ug temporary pa gani ang na-issue sa ilaha kay wala pay approval sa MCWD, mo-operate naman sila (Even if they were just issued temporary permits, they still operate even without MCWD’s approval),” said Mercado.

MCWD, for their part, will  assist  NWRB in validating the location and extraction of water permit applicants and will report to NWRB all violations of water extractions based on permits.

Mercado said that a lot of consumers opt to connect with private water suppliers who do not have their approval yet since they supply water at around P5 to P10 per cubic meter, which is lesser compared to MCWD’s P13 per cubic meter.

MCWD General Manager Armando Paredes explained that the private water suppliers do not have residential sector to cross subsidize.

He also clarified that the 43 percent of the demand coverage are referred only for those who are connected to them. The rest of the percentages are supplied by private water suppliers and those with deep wells.

Paredes said that by 2020 they are aiming for a 66 percent increase on its demand coverage by controlling the extraction of water in Metro Cebu.

MCWD is currently serving over 160,000 households, with 200,000 cubic meters of their total production distributed to the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Talisay and the municipalities of Liloan, Consolacion, Cordova and Minglanilla.  (FREEMAN)