Baguio to hike water rates

EVERY DROP COUNTS Water has become a precious resource in Baguio as the city deals with a growing population and overdevelopment. —EV ESPIRITU

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — Rates for water, a basic necessity here that has become expensive due to the scarce supply, will soon increase, to ensure that every household contributes to the upkeep of the city’s environment.

The city government has tasked the Baguio Water District (BWD) with imposing a sewage fee for every cubic meter of water consumed by a household or a business establishment.

This is to defray the cost of cleaning toilet or kitchen water that ends up in rivers, officials of the city environment and parks management office said during an executive-legislative meeting on Monday.

A 1995 memorandum of understanding between the city government and BWD that was never implemented pegged a P2 to P3 fee for every cubic meter of water consumed by households, businesses, churches and other institutions, said lawyer Rhenan Diwas, city environment officer.

Polluters’ taxes

But financial experts here are reviewing the rate for a proposed amendment to the city’s environment code to improve all provisions for polluters’ taxes.

Sewage fees would also be imposed on private deep well owners, who sell water to augment the daily water requirements of families, according to Mayor Benjamin Magalong.

Water is rationed in many parts of the city, and most families buy water delivered from operators of private deep wells.

Private water delivery rates average P28 per drum (roughly P140 per cubic meter), which is three or four times costlier than the P38 to P40 minimum fee charged by BWD for 10 cubic meters.

Extraction fee

The city government plans to install meters to record every deep well extraction that would be charged with the corresponding cost of sewage cleanup, said Bonifacio dela Peña, city administrator.

“It will be up to these water delivery companies to pass on that charge to their customers,” he said.

The sewage fees will bolster Baguio’s credit rating, Magalong said.

Financial standing

The Asian Development Bank will review Baguio’s financial standing in March as part of due diligence to determine its ability to pay loans after it opened a credit line for the repair and upgrading of its septic and sewage network.

The upgrading would cost the city government as much as P22 billion. Fixing Baguio’s sewage is important because city wastewater has contributed to the pollution of the Bued and Balili rivers which flow down to Benguet and La Union provinces, Magalong said. It is part of Baguio’s redevelopment initiatives.

Not new impositions

The sewage fees are not new impositions, Diwas said, but are only collected from commercial establishments with sewer lines connected to the city’s only sewage treatment plant at North Sanitary Camp village.

The plant processes a little over 8,500 cubic meters of wastewater discharged each day from 5,861 houses and buildings, most of which are in downtown Baguio.

But no households had been required to pay sewage fees, “so sewage treatment is heavily subsidized by the city government,” Diwas said.

He said the rehabilitation and extension of Baguio’s 61 kilometers of sewer lines should eventually process wastewater generated by more than 90,000 households.

“Whether you are connected [to the treatment plant] or not, you are affecting the environment. Septic tanks do not clean kitchen water, and still discharge wastewater,” said Dela Peña, a geodetic engineer.

The city government is also imposing environment fees for park visitors to pay for the upkeep of public facilities, such as Mines View Park and and the old Diplomat Hotel (formerly the Dominican Retreat House).

“During a storm in September, over a thousand people visited the Diplomat Hotel,” Diwas said.