EDITORIAL - A basic need

You can go without food for a couple of days, but you can never go without water. Yet here we are, in the 21st century, with millions of people in the nation’s capital region still surviving on intermittent water supply, spending much of their hard-earned money on drinking water. In many areas, flushing a toilet is a luxury. Where there’s tap water, people can’t be sure if they can drink without getting amoebiasis or cholera.

Metro Manila residents were jubilant when water distribution was awarded in 1997 to two private concessionaires. The areas now serviced by Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc. enjoy strong water, although pipe-laying and other expansion projects often disrupt water service. The two concessionaires are supposed to service the entire National Capital Region.

For the past months, however, Maynilad’s expansion has been put on hold. Its giant pipes are rusting on abandoned road excavations that have aggravated traffic jams in parts of Metro Manila. The reason is well known by now. The peso’s major depreciation has bloated Maynilad’s debts. To recover some of its foreign exchange losses, Maynilad wants an increase of P4.75 per cubic meter in its current water rate of P6.58.

Under the 1997 Concession Agreement, a water rate increase requires public hearings and a review by the Regulatory Office of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, which makes a recommendation to the MWSS board. This process was ignored when the water rate increase was approved under a memorandum of cooperation between the MWSS and Maynilad that was reportedly sponsored by MWSS chief regulator Rex Tantiongco.

Amid the resulting uproar, President Arroyo cancelled the memorandum of cooperation. Since then Tantiongco has resigned and Maynilad’s rate hike petition has been in limbo, together with its expansion program. Meanwhile, many parts of Metro Manila are still awaiting strong, 24-hour water supply, courtesy of the water concessionaires.

How long does it take to resolve this impasse? The government can’t even appoint a replacement for Tantiongco. If the administration can promise food on every table, it should also promise the citizenry a steady supply of clean water from every tap.