BACOLOD City – Water Watch plans filing charges for gross neglect of duty against the Bacolod City Water District (Baciwa) and Prime Water Infrastructure Corp. (Prime Water).
Baciwa and Prime Water signed a 25-year P6.8-billion joint venture agreement (JVA) in November 2020 to supposedly improve water distribution and supply.
But according to Wennie Sancho, secretary general of Water Watch, consumers have been complaining of inadequate if not lack of water supply, among other dismal services.
Sancho – also the labor sector representative to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board – lamented that water districts, when privatized, would only be operating for profit and not service.
“Water should be kept as a common resource to be enjoyed equitably by all and not owned by private companies with vested interests to make profit,” he said.
The “joint venture” and “partnership” between Baciwa and Prime Water, said Sancho, were “merely euphemisms” to justify privatization.
Baciwa had said the JVA would improve potable water availability 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The venture involves the financing, development, rehabilitation, expansion, operation and maintenance of Baciwa’s water supply and septage management systems./PN
