Cebu City must find ways to save the aquifer
Although last week gave us a few days of rainy weather, it wasn’t enough to refill our underground water supply. There was even the report that the Metropolitan Cebu Water District said the Jaclupan facility was not its usual self this time of the year. As the report goes, Jaclupan averaged only 21,000 cubic meters per day, which is considered the facility’s lowest daily production in 10 years for November, which is the month with the most number of times they had the highest volume available, according to MCWD’s Production Data from 2010 to 2019. The well has dried up!
The Jaclupan facility was known as the Mananga Phase 1 project in Talisay City, which was a P770-million water supply project designed to catch, impound, and pump out 33,000 cubic meters of water per day that supplies water to MCWD consumers in Talisay City and Cebu City through 6,000 meters of raw water. For old timers like me, Talisay always had fresh water where one can simply dig five feet into the ground and water spurts out. But that was 40 years ago, and thanks to climate change and the devil-may-care attitude of our political leadership in those days, now Metro Cebu is suffering from lack of water. Yet huge Manila-based corporations continue to build high-rise condominiums in Metro Cebu without knowing how they will supply water to their clients.
Mind you, just a couple of months ago, I proposed constructing a tall dam to cross the Mananga River when I learned that there was a group interested to invest in this project and provide surface water to Metro Cebu. But look at the Jaclupan facility today, it only has a seven-meter dam and it has already dried up, which means the Mananga River is no longer producing enough water for Cebuanos to use.
This only means that we are now relying heavily on our underground aquifer for our water needs, where we use around 50%. But we already know that the saltwater intrusion has already reached the Capitol. This brings me to rethink what happened in Cebu City 30 years ago when Cebu Province sold the 53-hectare Club Filipino golf course where I learned to play golf. At that time, the Cebu media chastised the so-call rich golfers for playing in government land without realizing that the golf course kept the saltwater from entering Mango Avenue.
Cebu Province earned P640 million from the Ayala Corp. that constructed the Cebu Business Park. I dare you, ask around how much land is per square meter inside Business Park? There were no provisions by the local government to preserve areas for the rainwater to recharge our aquifer as Cebu City’s population wasn’t that huge yet and there was no water shortages 30 years ago.
Today, you will notice that Metro Cebu has turned into a concrete jungle where rainwater passes through our streets and into the sea. Come November 27, 2019, the members of the board of the Cebu Country Club (CCC) informed members with shares that there will be a meeting starting 6 p.m. No agenda has been mentioned, but I do hope that it doesn’t include the selling of the golf course, because with the price per square meter of land in the Banilad Area, it would certainly make the members extremely rich, although its members are already considered rich. Mind you, the CCC is a private club. However, certain applications affect Cebu City.
One thing that I know that is happening at the CCC is that Cebu City charges millions real estate taxes per year. Yet I dare say that Cebu City or its officials never recognized the major contribution of the club to Cebu City in preserving the 54-hectare golf course, which not only brings a lot of foreign tourists to Cebu, but is also a major contributor when it comes to storing our precious rainwater and recharging our aquifers. On this alone, I would like to say that it is high time for Cebu City to give the club members a sort of incentive for preserving this golf course, after all, this is a club that is a non-profit corporation, which means all the money it earns flows back to the club. But it is time for the city to recognize the CCC for its water-saving efforts.
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