Water supply woes grip Cagayan de Oro

| PHOTO: Official facebook page of the Cagayan de Oro Water District

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Some 40,000 households in this city either lost or are experiencing low-pressure water supply as the bulk water provider of Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) shut off its valves on Tuesday.

In an advisory, Cagayan de Oro Bulk Water Inc. (COBI) said it cut off water supply to COWD at 10 a.m. on Tuesday after hearing nothing from COWD on its demand for the latter to settle it P470 million obligation for previous bulk water deliveries.

COWD has contested the billing, claiming that it has not collected from water concessionaires an increased rate for its service hence is not in a financial position to pay.

COBI’s billing was based on an adjusted rate that factors in an automatic increase every three years.

COBI supplies 80 to 100 million liters of water per day to COWD.

“We deeply regret to inform the residents of Cagayan de Oro City that, as of 10:00 a.m.today, that the main supply valves supplying both the east and west pipelines leading to the water distribution of the water district have been closed,” COBI said in a statement.

Affected were the villages of Iponan, Bulua, Patag, Upper Carmen, Canitoan, Pagatpat, Camaman-an, and portions of Lumbia, Lapasan, Gusa, and Macasandig, as well as Barra and Igpit in Opol town, Misamis Oriental.

Since May 1, the city government has put up a contingency plan in case COBI finally decides to cut its water supply, with Mayor Rolando Uy organizing an incident management team and placed the city under a state of emergency.

The city government has tapped private water trucks, and the Bureau of Fire Protection to ensure unhampered water distribution to affected residents.