Mindanaotoday.com | COWD taps another source of bulkwater
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
OPOL, Misamis Oriental – At least a thousand households in two housing subdivisions are assured of stable water supply after a bulk-water facility was inaugurated Monday morning, June 26, at Youngsville Subdivision, at Igpit village, Opol, Misamis Oriental.
Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) Board Chairperson Nelia B. Lee, Balibago Water Resources Inc. (BWRI) President Cristina Isabelle P. Alejandro, and Opol Mayor Jayfrancis D. Bago led the ceremonies at the reservoir area, in the presence of homeowners who waited for potable water for years.
“We in the (COWD) board provide the policies, we approved projects,” said Lee even as she lauded South Balibago Resources, Inc. (SBRI), a subsidiary of BWRI, for taking the risk of pursuing the bulk-water project, and the town mayor’s indomitable spirit.
COWD General Manager Antonio B. Young, in his opening remarks, said SBRI took the risk by partnering with JE Hydro & Bio-Energy Corporation in the construction of a 10-million-liter-day (10 mld) water treatment plant at Bulao, Iponan village.
Young said the municipality of Opol also took risks by resorting to emergency purchases to facilitate that the potable water, through a 7-kilometer pipeline, could be brought to Youngsville Subdivision which is at a relatively high elevation.
“We have limitations, particularly financial restraints,” said the COWD general manager who assumed the post January this year, thus the bidding of the bulk-water project of SBRI was realized only December last year.
Starting June 15, COWD would be buying one million liters per day (MLD) of water from SBRI for Youngsville Subdivision and January 24 for Pag-IBIG Citihomes in Malanang village, Opol with 700 and 300 estimated number households.
BWRI’s Alejandro, who also spoke also for the SBRI, thanked the mayor of Opol and the homeowners for their persistence in their clamor for a 24/7 supply of potable water, the very reason they came to Cagayan de Oro, though ended up serving Opol, Misamis Oriental.
“We were not getting into the door of COWD,” said the president of the country’s biggest and oldest bulk-water provider, admitting it was risky and it took them and JE Hydro three years and a half to complete the water-treatment facility in Iponan, Cagayan de Oro.
SBRI was the only bidder when the bidding was finally held December last year, hence Alejandro’s firm finally got the contract.
For his part, Bago said stable and safe water supply was his main campaign promise when he ran for mayor and that has been fulfilled, at least in Youngsville and at Pag-IBIG Citihomes. But there are other villages in his town still without reliable sources of potable water.
He appealed to SBRI and COWD that whatever excess water supply available, such would be supplied to his constituents and later to nearby towns.
This, he said, was the result of patience, of filing formal complaints, and being “friends of all friends,” reminding all Youngsville residents to conserve water, report leakages, and never steal water or face the consequences.
The first bulk-water contract that COWD signed was about 16 years ago, that of Rio Verde Water Consortium, Inc., the forerunner of Cagayan de Oro Bulkwater Inc. (COBI) which sources water supply from Bubunawan River at Pualas village, Baungon town, Bukidnon.
These, in addition to COWD’s 28 operational production wells, providing water to more than 107 thousand customers in Cagayan de Oro and the municipalities of Opol and Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.
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