MCWD to get water supply from private firms

CEBU, Philippines — To lessen the water “supply and demand” gap, the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) will develop several in-house production wells and will receive over 23,000 cubic meters per day in the first half of 2020.

In a statement, the MCWD said that it is actively securing additional volume to improve the service hours in areas where supply is no longer available for 24 hours.

“The water district is prioritizing in-house wells in areas where the demand for water is high, since these are easy and fast to develop and are not easily affected by the dry spell as well,” said MCWD Acting General Manager Stephen D. Yee.

The water demand in Cebu is projected to be at 580,000 cubic meter per day and MCWD’s daily production is only at 233,000 cubic meter.

For January 2020, production averaged at 223,000 cu. m. daily.

MCWD said that the 10,000 cu. m. per day deficit was due to supply interruptions resulting from power outages, leaks and preventive maintenance activities by the water district.

However, MCWD is expecting a decreasing trend in the daily production starting this month when the rainfall volume is expected to fall below the average as the onset of summer nears.

The new in-house production wells are expected to yield a total of 3,000 cubic meters (cu. m.) per day that will benefit consumers in Barangays Sambag I and Capitol Site in Cebu City, Cubacub in Mandaue City and San Isidro in Talisay City.

MCWD is also expecting private bulk water suppliers to start delivering water to identified points by June.

Mactan Rock Industries Inc. will deliver 10,000 cu. m. per day from its wells in Compostela, 2,000 cu. m. per day from its facility in Marigondon-Gabi and 3,000 cu. m. per day in Tejero, Cebu City.

Supply will further improve in northern Metro Cebu when the Danao City Bulk Water Supply Project starts flowing either in the second or third quarter of this year.

The project is expected to deliver about 10,000 cu. m. per day.

The Danao City government needs to lay an additional two kilometers of pipe to be able to deliver to MCWD’s injection point in Compostela.

“As part of its short-term solutions to the water scarcity, MCWD is coordinating with government, non-government and private sectors for possible partnerships in developing groundwater wells,” the statement added.  GAN (FREEMAN)