BF Resort residents seeking compensation from water firm

Residents of BF Resort Village in Barangay Talon 2, Las Piñas City, a subdivision affected by the typhoid outbreak caused by allegedly contaminated water, are now demanding compensation from their distributor.

"This is the clamor of the people. Who will shoulder our medical expenses, our medicines, and hospital bills? Those who got sick have spent so much. This was caused by a third party," Gerard Santos, president of the Evelyn Camus Street Association, told The Star in a phone interview.

Santos said residents are now thinking of bringing the case to court.

He added that residents believe that BF Waterworks "should be answerable since they are the ones managing our water."

BF Waterworks is the subdivision’s private water distributor.

Santos said the water company has had a pending application for rate increase before the National Water Regulatory Board (NWRB) since last year.

"Even then we had opposed this because there was no assurance that there would be better the service. All the more with this typhoid incident. This would be a point against them," he said.

According to the company’s accounting supervisor, Robert Campos, BF Waterworks last increased its water rates in 1998.

The company is proposing a 65 percent rate increase, from a basic rate of P8.80 per cubic meter to P14.50 per cubic meter, Campos said.

Santos urged BF Waterworks and the city government to ensure a long term solution for the problem to avoid a recurrence.

He noted that while BF Waterworks has begun cleaning their water pipes, it seemed that it was "still avoiding responsibility."

For his part, Engr. Henry Marcaida, head of the water company’s distribution and customer service department, said it would be up to the court to decide whether the residents should be compensated.

Marcaida emphasized that " there has been no confirmation" from the Department of Health (DOH) that the victims were indeed downed by typhoid and that water from BF Waterworks was unsafe.

Moreover, Marcaida also said the water samples that failed the city health department’s bacteriological test did not come from the company’s water system.

The water sample that failed was taken from a bakery that used its own deepwell, 60 meters away from Pump No. 6, said Marcaida, and not from the said pump itself as earlier reported.

Therefore, the sample does not represent Pump No. 6, the engineer stressed.

"We can’t admit anything today, "Marcaida said, adding that BF Waterworks has begun taking the necessary precaution by chlorinating the water and blowing off the pipelines since the city health office has already issued a sanitary order and given them an April 30 deadline.

"We’re complying right now even if our water did not cause this incident," he said.

Marcaida also cautioned residents, especially on Evelyn Camus street, that it would take "a couple of days" before their water completely clears after the blowing off process being conducted street by street.

He explained that this was because the street is on a lower pipeline point and therefore receives the brunt of the sediments.

At least one resident has died of typhoid and hundreds of others have fallen ill of the disease and experienced diarrhea, fever and urinary tract infection due to what residents claimed was contaminated water.