By PRINCE GOLEZ
Manila Reporter
MANILA — Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) must provide its consumers easily accessible water — whether or not Iloilo City will host ministerial meetings in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit next year.
“MIWD is duty-bound to improve our water supply … APEC or no APEC,” the city’s Rep. Jerry Treñas said in an interview with Panay News.
That is the only reason for its existence, the congressman stressed.
Treñas also welcomed the proposed collaboration between MIWD and Maynilad Water Services, Inc. for the repair of faulty pipelines and operations of wells in the city.
“It’s about time,” he said.
MIWD must spend time “thinking how it can improve its services,” said the Ilonggo legislator.
And the MIWD–Maynilad partnership, he said, is an “important baby step” toward the improvement of the water district’s services.
However, “several giant steps” are still needed, Treñas said. “We all await MIWD to decide whether to make them or not.”
The city’s sole water distributor is under pressure to improve its service in time for the 2015 APEC Summit.
Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog has expressed concern over the metropolis’ poor water situation.
Iloilo City is hosting two APEC ministerial meetings: the Small and Medium Enterprises Ministerial Meeting from Sept. 21 to 25 and the Food Security Week (High Level Policy Dialogue on Food Security and the Blue Economy and Related Meetings) from Sept. 28 to Oct. 6.
Some 1,600 delegates from 21 APEC economies are expected to attend the said meetings.
Treñas has previously called for the privatization of the water district.
Citing a World Bank study, the lone district representative said MIWD can serve only 20 percent of the total household in the city.
The other 80 percent, he claimed, has turned to “expensive” potable water.
“If we improve (MIWD’s) capacity to work on the actual distribution lines and additional distribution lines, more (residents) can be connected (to the water district),” Treñas said in a separate interview./PN
