MCWD board okays only P40T for study

The Metro Cebu Water District may have approved the request of the Protected Areas Management Board for the funding of a soil study, but the latter is not satisfied because out of the P60,000 it requested, the management of the water district allegedly only plans to allocate P40,000 for said purpose.

Dioscoro Melana, Regional Technical director of the Protected Areas Wildlife and Coastal Zone Management Services, said they received feedback that the board has already approved their request.

However, due to unknown reason, he added that the board only approved P40,000, which he said is very small to complete their proposed study on the soil in the watershed area.

"The P60,000 we requested is not even enough for the whole study. They might think we bloated the requirements, but we did not. We don't want the quality of the data to be sacrificed," Melana explained.

He added that they don't want the result of their study to be haphazard because this would be the basis of the projects and programs for rehabilitation of the Buhisan watershed where the MCWD reservoir is located.

Melana said that although the approval of their request is still verbal, the MCWD should consider that a broad study like what they have proposed needs ample funding.

"This (study) would be the basis to manage and protect the watershed and even the livelihood of the people in the area," he added.

Melana explained that the study would become part of the medium-term development plan for the management and protection of the Buhisan watershed.

However, MCWD board chairman Juan Saul Montecillo refused to confirm that they already approved the funding. "As far as I am concerned, I don't remember that we have tackled it," he said.

Aside from the P60,000 funding for the study, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, through the PAMB, is asking the MCWD to pay some P30 million representing environmental protection fee because the Buhisan watershed is host to the water district's reservoir/dam.

Melana said payment of environmental protection fee is stipulated under the National Integrated Protected Areas System. Under the law, he said MCWD is supposed to pay P1 per cubic meter of water it gets from Buhisan for the protection and rehabilitation of the watershed area. -Wenna A. Berondo/MEEV