7 LGUs, MCWD sign pact for water project

CEBU, Philippines - Seven local government units in Cebu have signed a memorandum of agreement yesterday to support the program of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District that would deliver water to the poorest of the poor.

The seven LGUs are the cities of Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, Cebu and Talisay, and the towns of Cordova, Consolacion and Liloan.

However, during the signing, there were no representatives from Liloan, Consolacion and Lapu-Lapu City.

MCWD acting general manager Noel Dalena said these LGUs, even though they failed to fix their respective signatures, already expressed support to the program.

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency, through its Sustainable Water Fund, is funding 55 percent (P208 million) of the $8 million (P376 million) five-year private-public partnership water supply project that will benefit 80,000 of the most vulnerable people in Metro Cebu.

“The poor in Cebu City is attended by this program. This is hitting what should be confronted with,” said Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama in his opening remarks.

The Netherlands Ambassador to the Philippines Marion Derckx sees the success of the project though strong partnership.

The project partners are MCWD; Vitens Evides International, a company formed from the four biggest water companies in the Netherlands; Eau et Vie (E&V); Tubig Pag-asa; the Netherlands Red Cross; and the Cebu City government.

MCWD said that aside from the P208 million grant, it will contribute more than P112 million while VEI will give P38.5 million as counterpart.

Tubig Pag-asa will contribute more than P1 million while the Netherlands Red Cross will chip in P15 million.

VEI is the lead partner responsible for managing the project and delivering  capacity building support to the partners while E&V is responsible for installing  water connections in poor communities and for implementing micro-financing so that water service will be affordable.

Part of the project is a community program involving water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), health promotion and disaster resilience.

The Netherlands Red Cross will coordinate with the local Red Cross in delivering the WASH program and improving water sustainability for the poor.

The project is expected to improve Metro Cebu’s preparedness for disasters as MCWD will have backup power for its most critical production sites.

The Cebu City government is responsible for government support, granting permits to implement the project, community selection and tariff negotiations.

The project is aimed to enhance water services to the urban poor in Metro Cebu, bring the distribution closer to poor areas, and provide water directly to the poorest of the population.

Through the project, MCWD will acquire 27 generator sets and will lay 16 kilometers of pipelines, 3.15 kilometers of interconnection lines, install 10,000 connections in poor communities and E & V will install another 5,000 connections in extremely poor communities.

After the full implementation of the project, the target communities must have improved access to drinking water, sanitation facilities, healthcare, education and increased capacity to respond to future disasters.

Rene Mercado, MCWD chairman of the board, said that after five years, the project will be turned over to them.

“Amoang paninguhaon nga before the five-year-period ma turnover na sa MCWD for a much cheaper water supply,” Mercado said. — (FREEMAN)