Cebu water project starts in March

CIVIL works of the Cebu bulk water supply project in Carmen town, north Cebu may begin in March.

To speed it up, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia called for a special session on Feb. 29.

The Provincial Board will approve a resolution authorizing Garcia to sign the contract on behalf of Cebu Province with Manila Water Consortium.

“Sign the contract as soon as possible because we wish for the actual civil works to commence. This is going to take sometime and we could not waste anymore time that has long been overdue,” she told reporters.

“We know that the supply for steady and safe supply for the Metro Cebu area has been an urgent need for many years now. And this project is a breakthrough in the sense that we will be tapping surface water not ground water. This will be tapped downstream. This is the water that more or less has gone out to the sea,” she added.

Garcia met with officials of Manila Water Consortium and the members of the Joint Investment Selection and Evaluation Committee (JISEC) yesterday afternoon to discuss the final draft of the contract before a copy will be given to the Provincial Board (PB).

She cited that one highlight of the contract is the creation of a Joint Investment Company (JICO).

JICO is a company composed of Manila Water Consortium and the Provincial Government of Cebu with the Manila Water owning 51 percent of the share and 49 percent of the Provincial Government.

“It actually needs to be formed because it is a joint investment. There has to be another corporate personality that must be created with this partnership,” she said. /Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus