The Osmeña Water Works System rates in the 1940s
City Ordinance No. 62 enacted in 1947 regulated the private and public water supply provided by the Osmeña Water Works System. Section 4 of the ordinance provided that the connection with water mains shall not exceed in size, as follows:
Private houses: 1 Inch, for stores, small hotels, theaters, and schools: 1-1/2, Barracks, large hotels, factories, boarding schools: 2 inches.
The water service were given the following distinctions according to its use: frst, for domestic use; second, for commercial or Industrial use; and third, for public use or service.
This was how the ordinance defined the following usage:
"Domestic use is understood to be the use of water for the ordinary home necessities of life.
"Commercial or industrial use is understood to be the use of water for the ordinary exercise of any industry or any commercial business such as restaurants and other public eating establishments, laundry, cinema houses, hotels, dormitories, gasoline stations, and the like. Such services shall always be furnished through meters.
"By "Public service" it is understood that which is under the control of the National, Provincial, or Municipal Government such as public fountains, baths, latrines, fire hydrants, street sprinkling, public buildings, etc.. Such service may or may not be furnished through meters in the discretion of the Osmeña Water works System.
The work of tapping the main, connecting the service pipe thereto and laying the pipe from the main to the property line including the digging and filling in of the trench on the streets in which a mater main is located will be performed by the employees of the system at the following rates: for one ½ or 3/4 inch connection - P15.00; for one one-inch connection - P20.00; for one 1-1/4-inch connection -P35.00; for one 1-1/2-inch connection - P40.00; and for one two-inch connection - P60.00.
In the past, it was the property owner who furnished all necessary pipes, appurtenances and materials connected in this work in accordance with the specification of the waterworks. Likewise, the connections to property not located upon streets where water mains were laid, from the water main to the property line, should be made in the same manner at cost, providing the property owner first deposits an amount to cover the estimated cost of the work.
The ordinance regulated that no connection shall be made for a period of less than one year. If the service was to be discontinued before the end of one year from the date of opening the said service, a charge of P2 would be made for shutting off the connection.
How was the rate computed? The ordinance ordered that the meter should be read by an inspector one each month. The reading shall be made in the presence of the property owner or his agent if he so desired. In case it was suspected that the meter did not register correctly the case should be immediately reported to the water works system for investigation.
Should the meter prove upon investigation to register incorrectly then the amount that would be collected for that month should be the average of the amounts consumed during the three previous months or the proportionate part of three months in which there had been connections with the water system.
The property owner should be responsible for the payment for all water used on his property until he notified the water works system in writing to disconnect his service. The water system reserved the right to shut off the water supply whenever necessary.
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