44% of NE households have no potable water — report

CABANATUAN CITY – At least 44 percent of households in Nueva Ecija, Central Luzon’s biggest province and ironically, home to the giant Pantabangan Dam, have no access to potable water, with domestic water supply reaching only residents in only 13 of the province’s 27 municipalities.

A report prepared by the Nueva Ecija provincial government showed that apart from the lack of solid infrastructure base to woo investors, the province which occupies 30.23 percent of Central Luzon’s total land area is suffering from acute lack of water for human consumption.

Emil Ferrer, chief of the provincial planning and development office, told a presentation before newly elected local officials during a recently concluded seminar workshop in Clark Field, Pampanga that 44 percent of Novo Ecijano households have no domestic potable water supply which is a serious problem considering that one of the cases of morbidity is water-borne.

He said there are only 18 water districts in the province which is a pity considering that it has five cities and 27 towns.

Ferrer said that water districts are in place only in the cities of Cabanatuan, Palayan, San Jose, Gapan and Munoz and in the towns of Guimba, Cuyapo, Llanera, San Antonio, Jaen, Cabiao, Sta. Rosa, Peñaranda, Gen. Tinio, Pantabangan, Talavera, San Isidro and San Leonardo.

Gov. Tomas Joson III who presided over the meeting said the provincial situation is much better than the national situation wherein 30 percent of households have no access to potable water.

Joson urged the mayors present to give priority to domestic water supply in their program of government. "Kung kayo mangungutang din lang, sa tubig na (If you will engage in loan borrowings, make sure it’s about the provision of water)," he said.

The lack of potable water has given rise to the possibility of tapping the mammoth Pantabangan Dam as a source of potable water in the future.

But based on the report, infrastructure and water accessibility are not only the concerns of local leaders but also grinding poverty.

The same report presented by Ferrer showed that the average family income in the province is pegged at P121,995 per year or P10,166.25 per month which is lower than the region’s and the country’s average family income of P151,449 per year and P144,639 per year, respectively.

The poverty incidence in the province is at 36.41 percent (89,854 families, fourth highest in the region.