‘HIGH AND DRY’: Portions of city, Pavia left with low water pressure as bulk supplier pulls plug

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

Just when we thought that the water supply woes of the city and province of Iloilo were over for the meantime, Metro Pacific Iloilo Water (MPIW) on Tuesday announced that several parts of its service areas would experience lower water pressure starting today, June 1, after one of its suppliers notified that it would stop delivering water.

MPIW announced via Facebook that low water pressure will beset Iloilo City’s Jaro district (Brgys. San Isidro and Tacas, and along Lopez Jaena Street from Sambag to Jaro Plaza) and Pavia town (Brgys. Anilao and Pangsangaan).

This latest water supply debacle will affect 6,000 consumers in the said areas.

The water provider revealed that this was due to Flo Water Resources no longer supplying to Iloilo Primewater Ventures Corp following the failure of negotiations between the two firms.

“Notice was served that Flo Water Resources (Iloilo), Inc. will no longer supply water to Iloilo Primewater Ventures Corporation due to failure of negotiations among and between them,” the MPIW said in its announcement.

“Due to these circumstances beyond the control of MPIW, effective this 12:00 midnight June 01, 2022 MPIW customers in some portions of Jaro and Pavia may experience low water pressure,” they added.

Daily Guardian learned from sources familiar with the negotiations that IPVC already notified Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD), one of the MPIW’s joint-venture holders, of the latest episode involving their bulk water suppliers.

The sources claimed that while MIWD’s Bulk Water Supply Contract (BWSC) with Flo Water was extended by 6 months last March 16, this did not cover the two suppliers’ (IPVC and Flo Water) supply agreements.

They pointed out that IPVC and Flo Water failed to reach an agreement on their tariff or price adjustments, thus the latter cut its supply to the former.

Flo Water had previously intended to stop supplying to MPIW with the expiry of their existing agreement last May 15, but the 6-month extension was granted on May 16 after a meeting with local government officials.

MPIW told Daily Guardian that because of this latest development, they would only be able to supply 70 to 75 million liters per day (MLD) to their customers, or 10 MLDs less than their normal supply.

Daily Guardian is still trying to get statements from IPVC and Flo Water as of this writing.

Flo Water and IPVC provides 30,000 cubic meters of water to MPIW daily – 20,000 from the Florete-owned firm and 10,000 through the Villar-owned supplier.