By LITO RULONA
Correspondent
THE lawyer of the group that filed a complaint against Rio Verde Water Consortium Inc. has expressed surprise over revelations that the Cagayan de Oro Water District was kept in the dark about exactly where the treated water supplied to it by the firm came from.
“All along, the people of Cagayan de Oro have been drinking water from a National Irrigation Administration canal, and it happened since 2013,” said lawyer Ernie Palanan.
Palanan has filed a complaint against Rio Verde and the National Irrigation Administration before Malacañang on behalf of a group in Baungon, Bukidnon last week. In it, the group questioned a contract between Rio Verde and NIA that allowed the firm to siphon water from an irrigation canal in Baungon for treatment.
Palanan said COWD was apparently lied to or made to believe that the treated water it bought from Rio Verde and distributed to western parts of the city and Opol, Misamis Oriental came directly from the Bubunawan River when it was actually siphoned off from Baungon’s irrigation system.
He said a NIA official’s revelations last week established that the daily supply of 40 thousand cubic meters that COWD bought from Rio Verde came from an irrigation canal.
Palanan noted that the NIA disclosed that based on its contract with Rio Verde, it sold 40 thousand of cubic meters from the irrigation canal at a price of 13 centavos and subsequently, at 17 centavos.
Palanan belied NIA’s claim that the 40 thousand cubic meters were excess irrigation water even as he blamed the contract for the decrease in irrigated farms in Baungon.
Palanan said the decrease can only be attributed to the siphoning of irrigation water intended for farmers. He said the volume of irrigation water significantly decreased “to the point that farm lots are not irrigated anymore.”
“Farmers have to fight for irrigation water,” he said. “Some farmers simply stopped irrigated-type of farming to avoid bloody confrontations.”
He the NIA’s claim that irrigation associations in Baungon consented to the use of irrigation water by Rio Verde was inaccurate.
“Let it be noted that NIA got the consent on the right-of-way for NIA’s canals from the landowners based on the assurance that the water will be used for irrigation and not for commercial purposes,” Palanan said.
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