The National Economic Development Authority-7 supports MCWD and JICA to conduct their Master Plan Study on Comprehensive Sewerage System Development during a joint coordinating committee meeting on November 8. | Photo courtesy of NEDA-7
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government has expressed its support to the study that would improve the city’s water quality and sanitation.
Earlier, the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) through its general manager, Edgar Donoso, reported that over-extraction of groundwater has led to the depletion of freshwater sources, allowing saltwater to infiltrate the aquifers that supply drinking water to Cebu City residents.
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This prompted the City Council to call the MCWD to take immediate action to resolve this, as several barangays are already experiencing saltwater intrusion including Barangays Mambaling, Sawang Calero, Pasil, Ermita, Santo Niño, San Roque, Tinago, Tejero, Carreta, Mabolo, and Kasambagan.
These areas are at risk of compromised water quality, which could lead to issues related to taste, usability, and health risks associated with saline water.
Master plan
The saltwater intrusion is one of the problems that the MCWD is seeking ways to resolve.
The MCWD, in partnership with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) crafted a Master Plan Study on Comprehensive Sewerage System Development that seeks to improve the City’s water quality and sanitation through creating a detailed sewerage master plan and investigating appropriate ‘financing strategies.’
In 2019, MCWD requested JICA to apply for a grant to establish a sewage treatment system for Metro Cebu, and only in March this year that the master plan was formulated.
Minerva Gerodias, MCWD information officer, clarified to CDN Digital that this master plan was still in the ‘study phase’ and “not yet the establishment of the sewerage system itself.”
“Ang stage karon is magstudy pa lang how to go about it. Pilay kinahanglanon nga funding, where to get funds? Mao pa ni ang stage karon gilaunch namo last week (November 8),” Gerodias said.
(The stage now is we have yet to study how to go about it. How much funding does it need, where to get funds? This is still the stage now that we launched last week (November 8).)
Gerodias said that the master plan would be a three-year study, and it would be expected to be done by 2027.
The master plan also received support from the National Economic and Development Authority in Central Visayas (NEDA-7).
NEDA-7 said on their Facebook post on November 16 that “to facilitate implementation, the master plan study will include a pre-feasibility study to assess potential projects for funding and execution.”
For his part, Cebu City mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia expressed its support for this study but noted that there would be a few things to consider.
“I support that stand. That we need to stop taking water from the groundwater or aquifers because of the salt water inclusion,” Garcia said in a press conference at the City Hall on Monday, Nov. 18.
Water production
However, Garcia said that it would “not be an easy solution” because people in the metro get their water from groundwater.
He said that those under the franchise area of MCWD had a demand of about 500,000-550,000 cubic meters of water per day. MCWD’s franchise area are the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, Talisay, and the towns of Cordova, Consolacion, Liloan and Compostela.
Garcia also added that the amount of water production daily could not meet the required demand of water in Metro Cebu.
According to Gerodias, the demand is almost 600,000 cubic meters per day, but MCWD can only produce 310,000 cubic meters per day.
“So where are the other people getting water? From the groundwater,” Garcia said.
He added that when business establishments or private individuals apply for a permit to dig water from the ground, the MCWD would turn it down as the latter would say that it is not allowed by law.
“But if you can’t, where will you get the water? That’s the problem,” Garcia said in mixed Cebuano and English.
He added that since the water source is one of the problems in Metro Cebu which was now being addressed by MCWD as they were looking for other sources of water to augment their existing capacity for supply, hence there is desalination.
Garcia also said that he would welcome to have dams in Cebu City, and the City Government would be open to a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) that would build dams in the mountain barangays.
He said that dams will be able to catch rainwater then they will supply it to MCWD.
But the problem, he said, is that only 10 percent of rainwater is retained, and the 90 percent is thrown out to the sea.
“Basta di na gyud ta mu dig sa atong aquifers kay ang saltwater intrusion muabot nas Talamban,” Garcia said.
Wells as source of water
Meanwhile, according to Gerodias, other people get their water from their own wells, but these people do not have the capacity to monitor how much water they extracted.
“Usa gud sa factor anang saltwater intrusion is over extraction of underground water. Ang MCWD monitors its extraction sa among underground nga mga wells everyday we monitor,” Gerodias said.
She said that during their monitoring, if they would see that the level of the aquifer had declined, they would order to stop the extraction.
An aquifer is a water-bearing rock that transmits water to wells and springs, according to the US Geological Survey.
In response to the Council’s call, Gerodias said that the MCWD did not have the police power or call out people to regulate.
“Wala mi police power nga moregulate sa lain,” she said.
(We don’t have the police power to regulate others.)
She added that the local government unit (LGU) could make the order to monitor the groundwater extraction. | with a report from Pia Piquero