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Cagayan de Oro City officials assured their constituents that contingency plans are in place to ensure a continuous water supply amid a disconnection notice issued by the city’s contracted bulk water supplier.
In a press briefing held late Wednesday afternoon, Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy told local media that he issued an executive order creating a task force that will look for alternative water suppliers as well as investigate the validity of the contract entered into between the Cagayan de Oro City Water District (COWD) and Cagayan de Oro Bulk Water Inc. (COBI).
‘I would like to assure the public that our office and City Hall are ready with our contingency plans. We’ve also called on others to help us (with our problem). The public have no reason to fear as we will ensure that they will still have water (with or without COBI),’ Mayor Klarex said in Visayan, adding that he has some potential investors though he declined to identify them.
Mayor Klarex made the assurance even as the 20th City Council plans to meet with COWD’s board of directors within the month to discuss the contract.
Councilor Edgar Cabanlas, who chairs the task force, said they will meet behind closed doors on Friday afternoon to discuss the city’s legal options following COBI’s fourth issuance of a disconnection notice late February.
Mayor Klarex said he will heed the task force’s recommendation and emphasized that he doesn’t want the public to be inconvenienced should COBI push through with their disconnection.
Meanwhile, Cabanlas said the 20th City Council will decide during their next session on what action to take in response to the water rate dispute between COWD and COBI.
COBI insisted that COWD owes them P426 million in collectibles after the water district failed to implement the over P3 incremental increase in water rate that took effect in 2020.
COWD general manager Engr. Antonio Young said the COWD board didn’t agree to the increase and insisted on the P16 per cubic meter rate as agreed on in their contract which ends in 2030.
COWD charges P16.60 per cubic meter daily to its consumers while COBI bills COWD about P20.57 cubic meter of water daily or a difference of P3.97.
During Thursday’s ad hoc committee (council of the whole) meeting of the council, COBI’s legal counsel Roberto Rodrigo said they remain open to negotiations with COWD on settling their water rate dispute.
Still, Cabanlas told local media afterward that the contract between COWD and COBI is ‘disadvantageous to the city’ as it allows COBI to impose an incremental P3 increase in water rates every three years while COWD needs to secure approval for water rate increase from the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA).
‘The task force will meet Friday afternoon to discuss our legal options while the council will review the contract. If the council sees that the contract is disadvantageous, then we will initiate action to revoke, annul or cancel the contract,’ Cabanlas said. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)
