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A FIVE-YEAR-OLD water dispute involving the northern Cebu municipalities of Medellin and Daanbantayan was laid to rest on Tuesday.
Daanbantayan Mayor Sun Shimura and Medellin Mayor Ricky Ramirez signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that binds them to cooperate in providing their constituents with potable water.
“Water should be managed wholistically and it should not be made to recognize political boundaries,” said National Water Resource Board executive director Ramon Alicpala.
Shimura and Ramirez signed the MOA at the Capitol social hall on Oct. 21.Also signatories to the MOA are Gov. Gwen Garcia, Alicapala and Porferio Cuyos of the Panugnawan Waterworks Association.
“Water is becoming scarce and we have to manage it well,” said Alicpala.
The Medellin-based association operates a water pump in barangay Malbago in the neighboring town of Daanbantayan since 2001. Their pump supplies at least 40,000 cubic meters of water daily.
Former Daanbantayan mayor and now vice mayor Ma. Luisa Loot had their pump padlocked because of an unsettled dispute with Medellin officials over the rerouting of buses that ply their municipalities.Cuyos said they filed a complaint against Loot before NWRB.
Governor Garcia intervened in the dispute between the warring LGUs.
She said there was no reason for the two neighboring Local Government Units (LGUs) to fight.Their series of negotiations led to the signing of the MOA which provides that the association agrees to remove the water pump which they installed in Malbago in Daanbantayan town and transfer this to Curva in Medellin.
The provincial government will also help install a water system for Malbago on the site vacated by the association.
The water system will service residents of sitios Looc and Badian in barangay Malbago.Cebu province will also assist in the transfer of the associations water pump from Malbago and its installation in Curva in Medellin.
Cuyos said the transfer will already augment an existing pump that they now operate in Curva.He said that association established their first Curva pump to continue their operations following the suspension of operations of their Malbago pump.
With the availability of a second pump in Curva they could already expand their operations to neighboring barangays of Dalingding Sur and Caputatan Norte.
Cuyos said they charge P50 for the first five cubic meters of water consumed by their clients and P15 per cubic meters for the additional demand. Reporter Doris C. Bongcac
