MCWD tasks firm to help find water

The Metropolitan Cebu Water District, worried about the increasing demand for water, has signed a deal with a firm that would search for water for the utility.

MCWD signed a memorandum of understanding last week with Rio Verde Water Corporation, which would finance, design, construct, operate and maintain a bulk water supply project that would provide the utility with up to 400,000 cubic meters of potable water.

After the signing of the agreement, RVWC will study where to get the water and how much it could supply the water utility.

MCWD spokesperson Tertuliana Andaya said that because of the fast increasing demand for water and expansion of their franchise areas, they have been searching for additional supply to meet the demand. MCWD management said that due to sustained urbanization and industrialization, water supply in Metro Cebu has dwindled and has now reached a "critical level." With this, it added that water supply development has become a priority project of the government.

According to Andaya, the utility is only able to supply about 40 percent of the total demand of the more than one million residents of the metro.

Earlier, MCWD general manager Armando Paredes said that the demand for water here is growing by at least 5.7 percent a year due to fast development and migration.

Under the agreement, RVWC will conduct the feasibility study at no cost to MCWD and the former will submit results of the study for evaluation before the year ends.

The RVWC, through its proposed bulk water supply project, can supply water to MCWD from desalination process, as well as filtration and treatment of underground and surface waters of up to 400,000 cubic meters of potable water a day upon the total completion of the project. - Wenna A. Berondo