Summit held to address water supply woes

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – Mayor Alfredo “Albee” Benitez has called for an emergency meeting today, January 19, 2024, to address complaints of some residents regarding the water supply here.

In his public service program dubbed “Isugid Kay Mayor,” Benitez said that he invited the Bacolod City Water District (Baciwa)-Primewater, Bulkwater, Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA), and local chief executives of Murcia, Talisay, and Bago in Negros Occidental to discuss ways to solve the problem on the quality of water supply here and in parts of the province.

Atty. Romeo Carlos Ting Jr., city legal officer, said the water utility firm would base their assessment on 75,000 households when it is now 145,000 households.

Ting believed that if they will still base their assessment on 75,000 households, the problem will remain, as the population increases in the next years.

According to Baciwa-Primewater, some reasons that caused insufficient and dirty water supply could be because of distribution problems, equipment failure, and problems with the intake pump. These can be addressed by intensifying leak repairs, utilization of surface water, and use of big-size pipes.

Earlier, Benitez said that two local water concessionaires have expressed interest in providing water supply to Bacolodnons here.

Benitez has yet to elaborate on the details of these two concessionaires, but he said that they were based in Manila.

In Metro Manila, the two water utility firms are Manila Water, and Maynilad Water Services Inc. (Maynilad).