The hot and dry season is here and Bacolod Councilor Wilson Gamboa Jr. warned yesterday of another “no water supply situation” in Bacolod City, citing a repeat of issues about the non-payment of past dues and loans owed by the BACIWA-PrimeWater to its suppliers.
Gamboa expressed concern that Bacolod residents may once again face threats of total water supply cuts thus reiterated his call for BACIWA to be restored and returned to consumer-households and re-assert BACIWA’s mandate as a government owned and controlled corporation (GOCC).
He questioned the usefulness of the Bacolod Bulk Water Inc. (BBWI) system if half of Bacolod’s water consumer-households have no pipeline connection, no access to pipelines, and the other half are connected to aging, dilapidated, and leaking water pipelines.
Gamboa further disclosed that the non-revenue water (NRW) rate PrimeWater currently stands at 43 percent, meaning nearly half of the total treated water in the distribution system is lost before reaching consumers. The ideal, he said, as agreed under the joint venture agreement (JVA) between BACIWA and PrimeWater, should only be at 20 percent NRW.
He stressed that as a result, the consumer-households are effectively paying for almost half of the entire water supply produced by PrimeWater that they did not actually consume at all.
Likewise, according to Gamboa, there are about 900 reported leaks in the water distribution system that remain unaddressed and unanswered, adding that these leaks are not only about water loss; they open pipelines to contamination, directly affecting water quality and public health.
He also questioned the supposed sale agreement between PrimeWater and the Lucio Co Group which remained in limbo until now, and to borrow the words of Malacanang, such arrangement is merely a “definitive agreement” but clearly and evidently, it is not a consummated sale yet.
Gamboa added that the premature declaration of sale was actually a ploy to stop BACIWA from temporarily taking back control of the operation and management despite PrimeWater multiple violations of the JVA and continuous negligence of its obligation to provide clean, potable, quality, accessible and sufficient water supply.
He also said that PrimeWater continuously siphons the collection of BACIWA without corresponding structural investments at all that will improve its services.
Gamboa cited PrimeWater monthly average collection is at P60-million or P720-million gross annually and a net income of P100-million, average and the question remains, “where do these collections and net income go?”
He underscored that aside from the money siphoning of money collections and net income, there is an urgent need to protect BACIWA’s structural-infrastructure assets estimated at P750-Million which were all turned-over to PrimeWater under the JVA.
Gamboa said, “These assets belong to the people of Bacolod and must be protected.”
Gamboa, chair of the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Human Rights, reiterated and renewed his appeal for the return of BACIWA’s operations to full government and consumers’ control, warning that failure to act could further jeopardize water access, public health, and consumer welfare in the city and the Water District itself, in general.*
