Anything Under the Sun
MIWD story
The recent national conference of the Philippine Association of Water Districts (PAWD) attended by more than 1,000 delegates among whom were the general managers and officers of more than 500 water districts in the country was held in Iloilo City.
In that conference, the guest speaker was Dr. Rogelio M. Florete who stressed on the great importance of water in the life of man. He said that deliverance of water to poor communities results to progress, ample food supply and could save lives and restore human dignity.
With this, it is interesting to know the history of our own Metro Iloilo Water District. On September 16, 1926, the Philippine Legislature passed Act 3222 sponsored by Sen. Jose Ma. Arroyo authorizing the province of Iloilo to build a water system.
During this period, potable water needs of Iloilo were provided by so-called Agua de Molo drawn from the deep wells of Molo and peddled house to house by carabao-drawn carts.
When finished in 1928, its basic infrastructures were the dam at Daja, Maasin, the sedimentation basin at Butalan, Maasin, and the siltation reservoir at Talanghauan, Sta. Barbara. It was administered by the Iloilo Metro Waterworks.
Designed for the 20-year service to 100,000 people, the system has a transmission pipeline of 18-inches in diameter with a capacity of three million gallons per day and a watershed area of 6,000 hectares in the mountains of Maasin.
In 1965, the National Waterworks and Sewage Authority (NAWASA) took over the system and made the first major improvement in 1969 under Engineer Pedro Juanco with the addition of another gallery providing additional 2,500 gallons per day.
In 1971, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System(MWSS) took over but in 1978, the Metro Iloilo Waterworks District (MIWD) succeeded it.
MIWD's Ramon Jereos improved further the system by adding more turbines and erecting pumping stations at San Miguel.
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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The first set of five booklets (Books 1 to 5) of West Visayas Beautiful and Wonderful authored by this writer is now available at P500 at his office at No. 4 Santa Ana St., Molo, Iloilo City 5000 (Tel. No. 337-3054) We are starting the second set (Books 6 to 10) this January.