BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO – Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. will no longer meddle in the rift between Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) and bulk water supplier Flo Water Resources Iloilo, Inc. – not even if requested to intervene again.
So did the governor decide after Flo Water cut off its supply to the water district starting Saturday as “punishment” for MIWD’s failure to pay its arrears.
The governor would leave it now to the MIWD Board and management to settle its row with Flo Water for the sake of thousands water consumers in the city and suburbs.
He only advised MIWD to make a clear proposal to convince Flo Water to bring back the water supply.
Defensor said the bulk water supplier has a reason for taking the drastic move.
He recalled that MIWD had verbally agreed to pay its debt to Flo Water in last month’s meeting, where he and Iloilo City’s Mayor Jed Mabilog intervened.
He compared MIWD to its own water concessionaires who suffer “disconnection” for non-payment of water bill.
According to Flo Water, MIWD has not paid for 16 months already.
During the meeting last month, MIWD agreed to pay Flo Water P5 million a month. But so far, it has only paid P2.4 million out of its P120-million arrears.
But MIWD disagreed, stressing that its debt to Flo Water is only around P15 million, based on the actual volume of water delivered.
Based on the contract, Flo Water is supposed to deliver the contracted 15,000 cubic meters of water daily. But the old pipes of MIWD could take in only some 5,000 to 6,000 cubic meters a day.
Another bulk water supplier, Prime Water Ventures Corp., pumps in 10,000 cubic meters of water daily to MIWD. It has also stopped supplying water to MIWD./PN
