The Dumaguete City Water District has expressed concern over the misinformation being peddled by some political candidates against a proposed business deal that will provide a new water sou rce for the water district.
Esperato Dicen, DCWD general manager, told the MetroPost in an interview that contrary to the allegations being peddled by certain quarters, the Twinriver Corporation does not stand for Ocoy and Banica rivers. Rather, he explained, it is a Manila-based company that has proposed a Private-Public Partnership with DCWD.
The DCWD has a daily demand of 30,000 cubic meters, which it sources from its 17 pumping stations in Dumaguete City. “We are worried that too much extraction of underground water will damage our water table and allow seawater to seep into our freshwater source,” Dicen said.
He said that a study conducted by the DCWD in 2001 during the time of City Mayor Agustin Perdices stressed the need to ease the pressure on the aquifer.
Dicen said that this proposal of the Twinrivers Corporation has been favorably considered by the DCWD because it will ease the demand for underground water.
The company is proposing to supply 5,000 cubic meters of purified water daily to the DCWD which it will get from the Banica river.
The Twinrivers Corporation is now in the process of securing the necessary environmental clearances and permits. The DCWD, Dicen said, has also applied for a water permit because it will be the owner of the water that the Twinriver Corporation will filter.
Dicen assured the public that the adjustment in the water rates as a result of this PPP project will not be as big as the critics portray it to be. “The last water rate increase we’ve had was in 2003,” he said.
He said that the unquantifiable benefit of this project is the environmental benefit of saving the underground water source. This is a benefit that cannot be translated into monetary terms, Dicen said.
