Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) general manager Armando Paredes fields question on the looming water rate increase. (CDN PHOTO/ JUNJIE MENDOZA)
The Cebu City Council yesterday asked the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) to call for a public hearing to inform their consumers of the coming water rate increase before any increase is implemented.
Councilor Gerardo Carillo, author of the proposed resolution calling for a public hearing, said the water hike should not come as a surprise to water consumers if it is imposed.
MCWD general manager Armando Paredes told the City Council in last Wednesday’s session that a public hearing was already held back in 2005.
“Requesting MCWD to conduct a public hearing so Cebuanos will know what the increase is about and how this will be imposed,” he said.
Carillo asked Paredes to speak of their plan to operate septage treatment plants in Cebu City and the towns of Cordova and Liloan.
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“We received feedback from the consumers then that they don’t mind (the hike) as long as there is enough water (for their use),” Paredes said.
Since their petition for an increase was not immediately approved by the Local Water Utilities Administration (LUWA), this has not been implemented to date. “But the public hearing was held nine years ago,” Vice Mayor Edgar Labella told Paredes.
Paredes said they asked the LUWA if another round of public hearing is needed but they were told that it was unnecessary, because the requirement was already complied with in the 2005 hearing.
But Paredes said the MCWD intends to visit Local government units (LGUs) within their franchise area prior to the water rate increase to personally inform elected officials of the water rate increase.
The MCWD is set to implement a 12-percent rate increase in their water rate by July as a condition for the start of the bulk water supply contract tapping the Carmen river. The last rate increase was implemented in 2006.
When the rate is applied, piped water would already cost close to P15 per cubic meter for consumers in Metro Cebu. The current floor rate is P13.60 per cubic meter for 10 cubic meters a month, the average consumption of a household.
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