Butuan water firm sees sabotage of facilities

BUTUAN CITY—An official of the Butuan City Water District (BCWD) raised the possibility of sabotage aimed at the water utility firm that aggravated the effect of Tropical Storm “Seniang” in December on the firm’s facilities, reducing the firm’s supply of water by 40 percent.

Engineers of BCWD, according to BCWD spokesperson Ramil Barquin, found the steel cover of the firm’s manhole No. 4 in the Taguibo River removed, allowing sand and other debris to penetrate the filtration system and clogging the passage of water to the main transmission pipe.

Barquin said the cover might have been intentionally removed because it was unlikely that strong river current could have dislodged it.

“The infiltration gallery is a network of perforated pipes located five meters below the river,” said Barquin.

“It is used to collect water through intervening sand and gravel filters going to the main transmission line,” he said.

“BCWD closes the gallery during heavy rains, thus the removal of the steel cover had very serious negative effects as debris entered the system,” Barquin said.

Barquin refused to point to a suspect in the sabotage.

But sources said top city officials had been trying to influence the award of projects by the BCWD to their favored companies.

One of the projects is a P565-million bulk water supply and treatment project that BCWD had awarded to Taguibo Aquatech Solutions Corp. The city officials, however, want their favored firms to bag the deal instead.

One of the high ranking officials is lobbying for Koreans to get the contract. Another official, a failed bidder in other BCWD projects, had joined other top city officials in attacking BCWD to pressure the water utility firm to award the projects to their favored companies.

Reports of nepotism also hound the BCWD with one top official appointing a relative to a board seat in the firm.

Under the PPP project with Taguibo, BCWD would not spend anything except for water actually delivered to its pipes. No increase in water rates is expected.

Fast-track supply

Barquin said BCWD will fast-track the normalization of supply to 60 percent of capacity. “In all humility, BCWD asks for the understanding of those affected by this water crisis,” said Barquin.

The anticorruption watchdog group Butuanon Action for Transparency, Efficiency and Accountability (Bateag) had demanded a congressional inquiry into the water crisis in the city.

“The inquiry will ferret out the truth,” said Michael Torralba, Bateag convenor, in an earlier interview.

A signature campaign has been launched by Bateag to drum up support for the investigation and accountability. With a report by Franklin A. Caliguid, Inquirer Mindanao