City residents suffer limited water supply
Some 128,000 residents of Iloilo City who solely depend on the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) for their source of water will have to bear limited supply of water until the rainy season comes.
MIWD currently implements water rationing among its consumers due to the scarcity of water from source.
MIWD Interim Manager Edwin Reyes said, the water produced from the water district's sources drastically reduced from 40,655 cubic meters per day to only 26,000 cubic meters per day.
The primary source of water supply in the city is the Maasin Watershed.
Reyes attributed the reduction of water supply from source to the summer season.
MIWD has two sources of water, the ground water sources and water treatment plants. The water district has nine water treatment plants and nine water pumping stations, mostly located in towns outside Iloilo City.
Reyes said they need to produce 44,105,38 cubic meters per day of water to serve the needs of its 128,000 city consumers. He explained that the normal production of water in water treatment plants is 350 liters per second or 30,240 cubic meters per day in their water treatment plant.
Currently, water treatment plants can only produce 170 liters per day or 14,685 cubic meters per day. MIWD's primary source of water supply, the Maasin watershed is already dried up. They wanted to drill more wells in the town of Oton to address the water needs of its consumers.
However, they were prevented by the local government of Oton. Reyes said they have a "technical problem" with the local government unit. The dispute between the MIWD and the local government unit emanated from the National Wealth Code. The law exempted the water district from paying its taxes from the barangay level until the provincial level. The same law is applicable in the town of Maasin.
The water district, which is considered as utility provider has no legal basis to pay taxes from the local government and yet they are free to get water supply from the concerned local government units. This irked the municipal government officials.
Before the rationing scheme, the water district can produce 141 liters per second or 12,182 cubic meters per day of water from ground water sources. Now, they can only have 91 liters per second or 7,862 cubic meters per day. The volume of water from their water treatment plants and water pumping stations are not enough to address the needs of the consumers.
MIWD Resident Engr. Timoteo Villaroman said the consumers will suffer insufficient water supply until rain comes. "They (consumers) have to bear with the situation," said Villaroman.
Villaroman added that in order to address the problem, the MIWD is currently encouraging groups like the Bantay Kalikasan of the ABS-CBN to take part in the protection and reforestation activities at the Maasin Watershed. Some 6,000 hectares of the watershed needs to be reforested.
The MIWD is also banking on its P207 million rehabilitation program. The rehabilitation program includes the procurement of goods for internal generated plants and for the procurement of goods and services for the projects. Of the P207 million, P186 million was sourced out from the Asian Development Bank loan and the remaining P21 million is the equity of the water district.
The P207 million fund covers the rehabilitation programs not only in Iloilo City but in other 11 sub-projects in the different municipalities in the province. Among those 11 municipalities are Maasin, Cabatuan, Oton, Sta. Barbara and Leganes.