Residents line up for their chance to get clean water in Cebu. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) is still lacking generator sets to power some of its pumps, which is why they can only wait for Visayan Electric’s reenergization to increase their output.
Lawyer Jose Daluz III, the chairperson of MCWD, said in an interview that they have already asked for generation sets from the Cebu City government, but somehow the budget did not pass through the City Council.
He lamented the decision of the council and the fact that the itemized generator sets did not fit their needs as the utility is in dire need for the generators.
“Nangayo mig gen sets sa Cebu City nya pag-abot sa City Council, ilang gi itemize man, di man namao magamit ang 25kva. Pinakaubos kay 60 kva,” said Daluz.
Councilor Raymond Garcia, the City Council’s chairperson for budget and finance, told CDN Digital, that they actually approved a lump sum of P60 million for the generator sets.
He said that the itemized list of generator requirements did not fit the need of MCWD, so Mayor Michael Rama has vetoed the itemized list, allowing the executive department to purchase the gensets beyond the list that was approved by the council.
“Naa tay nakaappropriate nga P60 million, ang executive nay nagbuto unsa nga generator set ilang gamiton,” said Garcia.
Daluz, for his part, will meet the Executives of MCWD to discuss the options they can do to acquire more gen sets.
Possibly, the best option would be to take a loan of at least P35 to P50 million to buy generator sets.
However, the downside would be that the generator sets ordered will not arrive until February 2022.
Due to this, Daluz will consult the MCWD executives on the necessity to buy generator sets.
“Pwede man ta mopalit to prepare kay basin naay moabot nga bagyo pero we will consult the executive first,” he said.
As of now, MCWD is already producing 149,221 cubic meters per day as of December 28, 2021, or at least 62.2 percent of its normal production of 240,000 cubic meters per day.
Daluz said that with their existing generator sets in water pumps and the continuous reenergization of Visayan Electric, MCWD will soon be able to provide increased supply to more consumers.
Everytime a pump is reenergized, the generator set is also transferred to another pump that needs the power, and this has helped provide more water to the affected areas.
MCWD hopes the local government units (LGUs) will still help them get the needed generator sets.
To provide water to areas that have not yet been serviced, MCWD has deployed a total of 19 watertanks to provide water to the barangays. /rcg