Alvarez firm leaves COWD, Oro hanging

By HERBIE GOMEZ
Editor in chief

A WATER crisis has been gripping western parts of the city up to Opol town in Misamis Oriental since Tuesday, affecting nearly 50 thousand households and establishments. But the Cagayan de Oro Water District is unable to give an answer about when the water supply would normalize.

The COWD has also asked the Jose “Pito” Alvarez-owned Rio Verde Water Consortium Inc. the same question, and demanded a clear answer from its bulk water supplier.

There has been no answer from Rio Verde at presstime although it promised to send COWD an “official notice” yesterday, according to Engr. Bienvenido Batar Jr., COWD assistant general manager.

On Monday, Rio Verde notified COWD that it would repair its leaking main pipe until 5 pm starting the following morning. Hours later on Tuesday, COWD announced that Rio Verde extended the deadline to 9 pm.

The main pipe is submerged across Cagayan River, according COWD spokesperson Ladelle Sagrado.

COWD officials said they were made to believe that Rio Verde completed the repair at 7:30 am on Wednesday.

But it turned out that as of yesterday, Rio Verde was still working on its main pipe.

“They are still repairing it, and we have no idea when it will be finished,” Batar said.

He said COWD found out that what Rio Verde did on Wednesday morning was to merely use a smaller pipe near the Taguanao Bridge to supply water in lieu of its leaking main pipe.

The Taguanao pipeline — used like a “spare tire” — could only supply half the 2,500 cubic meters per hour that COWD requires of Rio Verde, not to mention that it  also significantly lowered the water pressure in the western areas. Faucets in many areas have literally dried up since Tuesday.

The same pipeline was used by Rio Verde after the 2011 typhoon Sendong devastation, and dependency on it is like a “band-aid solution,” said Batar.

Eduardo Montalvan, COWD chairman, said water district engineers were tasked to meet with their Rio Verde counterparts yesterday. He said COWD engineers also asked Rio Verde permission to inspect the damaged pipe so as to determine exactly what can be done.

The problem, according to Batar, was that no meeting took place because Rio Verde’s operations manager, Engr. Joffrey Hapitan, was out town.

In a 4 pm advisory, COWD stated that Rio Verde repair of the steel pipeline is ongoing, and that it has yet to be informed about the bulk water supplier’s “timeline for completion.”