BCWD, SP helpless on water crisis

BUTUAN CITY: The city is having trouble with water and the City Council is also having the same difficulty with Butuan City Water District (BCWD).

Councilor Ferdinand Nalcot said he already invited BCWD general manager Engr. Anselmo Sangtian in the council session but neither Sangtian nor any office representative arrived.

Nalcot, chair of the Committee on Social Services, wanted BCWD to explain what options were made by the water utility company in this present crisis but it seems an empty space for the councilor.

In a radio interview, Nalcot said BCWD asserts accountability to LUWA, the local water utilities administration, thus he felt helpless in making the water district explain its version.

The councilor admitted the committee cannot compel BCWD officials to answer their inquiries if it is not keen on.

The water problem here has been going on for many years already and no tangible solution was ever made by BCWD despite its promise, as well as from Mayor Ferdinand Amante Jr. himself.

Nalcot thinks BCWD failed in providing their justification to the public and people now are disappointed, he said.

It was learned from BCWD records that the water district has some P1-billion loans from LWUA refinanced, shouldered and re-acquired in 2013 by the Development Bank of the Philippines.

A source from BCWD said part of the loan was being used in the so-called AMIAD filtration system, which was rendered non-functional, for no reason.

It was also learned that consumers are paying this loan through their bills.

What Sangtian says, for now, is that their source of water supply in Sitio Iyao, Barangay Anticala has been affected heavily by typhoon Seniang with some of the support structures damaged.

Sangtian said immediate measures have been made, like rotations in water rationing and providing water tankers to barangays where villagers can get potable water.

Sangtian addded that their service in entirety for now is only 30 percent and as to when repairs will come to completion that he doesn’t know yet. (WITH REPORT FROM BEN SERRANO)