Poe: Dry season not an excuse for ‘unduly’ water service interruptions
Photo from Sen. Grace Poe’s office
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Grace Poe on Thursday said the dry season should not be an excuse for “unduly” prolonging water supply interruptions after Maynilad Inc. announced new rotational interruptions in its service areas.
“The dry season comes year in and year out. It shouldn’t be an outright excuse for unduly prolonging water service interruptions when definitely much can still be done,” Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public services, said in a statement.
“It would be a disservice to fail our people in their most basic need at this time of struggle to recover from the pandemic,” she added.
Maynilad announced on Wednesday that it will implement new rotational water service interruptions “to maximize limited supply and ensure all customers will have some water supply daily.”
In making this move, Maynilad cited the National Water Resources Board’s decision to further reduce raw water allocation from Angat Dam for the concessionaire starting June 27.
The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System Regulatory Office also earlier imposed a penalty of P63,973,362 to Maynilad and ordered it to give rebates to affected west zone consumers for the “unusual and prolonged water service interruptions” from December 2021 to February 2022.
Following these developments, Poe asked water concessionaires and concerned government agencies to boost their efforts to mitigate the impact of the dry season on water supply.
“We need all hands on deck to ably manage the water requirements of our consumers especially in the face of another possible virus surge. Complacency certainly has no place in these back-to-back threats,” Poe said.
“We expect our water concessionaires to deliver on their commitments under their renewed franchise and revised concession agreement, and complete the projects necessary to have safe and reliable water on the taps,” she added.
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