Council wants to be apprised on groundwater supply status

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Council is inviting officials of the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD), National Water Resources Board, and the University of San Carlos (USC) - Water Resources Center to an executive session to apprise the members of the local legislative body on the current status of the groundwater supply as well as on the petitions for water permits in Cebu.

Councilor Noel Archival sought an executive session after reading reports about the threats to groundwater supply in Metro Cebu. Archival said there have been reports about a new research study describing groundwater supply to be “dropping quickly” at an accelerated rate.

“With the country facing almost certain water shortage in at least some areas due to the El Niño, the warning should be taken seriously to prevent longer-term and perhaps even irreversible problems with water supplies,” Archival said in his resolution.

He also highlighted the factor that the artesian community wells in the City of Imus in Cavite, which were built a decade ago, are no longer functioning and some in the said City have already dried up after just being installed in a year or two.

Further, Archival also cited a report that discussed the water supply problem in Metro Cebu due to population boom. Another factor that is contributing to the serious threat to potable water supply in Metro Cebu is the saltwater intrusion.

Archival wants the reported “nitrate contamination of groundwater wells, and the moratorium against drilling for groundwater, limiting the supply of water by MCWD to 250,000 cubic meters a day, which is only half of the estimated daily demand of consumers for 500,000 cubic meters per day” to be discussed in the executive session.

Archival said that "the groundwater wells are also threatened by saltwater intrusion and nitrate contamination, which is brought about by nearby bottomless septage tanks buried underground.”

“There is a need for the City Council of Cebu to be apprised on the current situation of the aquifers of not just Cebu City but Metro Cebu itself, in order for legislative measures and interventions to be proposed,” Archival’s resolution reads. —/FPL (FREEMAN)