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Manila Water
CEO: Sorry
for shortage
THE Manila Water concessionaite on
Monday admitted to having violated
its mandate of providing unintemrpt-
ed water services to its consumeff and
is willing to pay the penalties to be
imposed by the Metropolitan Water-
works and Sewerase Svstem fMWSSl.
FSorryA8
&SORRY FROM A1
Manila
Manila Water Chief dxecutive Offi
cer Ferdinand de la Cruz apologized
for the inconvenience brought bY
consecutive water service interrup-
tions, which affected 1.2 million
holseholds in Metro Manila.
He made the aPologY duringthe
public hearing on the water c sis
conducted by the House Commit'
tee on Meto Manila DeveloPment
chaiied bY ReP. Winston Castelo
and presided bY House SPeaker
Gloria MacaPagal AnoYo.
"l am holding mYself accountable
for the sudden droP in our service
levels to your constituents whom we
have served for over the past 21 years
widr 24/7 water availability and suf-
ficient water pressure. March 6, 2019
is a date I will nwer forget as president
of Manila Watet" de la Cruz said.
He said on March 6, Manila
Water's reserves fiom the La Mesa
Dam breached the critical level of
69 meters, which Prevented the
agency from getting 150 million
liters, an amount which contributes
to its daily wattr allocation of 1,6 00
milidn liters per day (mld)
'This additional 150 mld is im-
portant to augment the 1600 mld
co ractual allocation we get from
the Angat system," he added
MWSS chief regulator Patrick TY,
however, said it had no authority to
impose penalties on lr4anila Water'
"Unfortunately; the MWSS Regu'
latory Office (RO) is not giver any
power to imposefines and penahies
There is no penal Provision in rhe
concession agreement authorizing
the MWSS RO to.imPose anY fines
and penalties," Ty said
Buhay party-list ReP Jose "Lito"
Atienza pressed for the immediate
resignation of MWSS Administrator
Rer,naldo Velasco and dela Cruz for
their failure to deliver water,
"They should stoP citing statis-
tics and technical requirements for
their disastrous non-performance.
Obviously You have failed! Both
the government and the Private
concessionaires have clearly failed
us," Aiienza said
Atienza noted that it was also unfair
.
for thb concessionaire to continue
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I Manila Water CEO tedinand dela
Crut. P*{*Y* SY tqUY M&!:lTil\1AA
moving the full wast€ waier coveftrge to
2037 when it has long entered a loan
agreement with inrcmational funding
institutions lo comply with a requlre-
ment to build facilities back in 1997'
Solutions
ManilaWater Co.Inc said on Mon
day that more areas in the eastem
portion of N'letro Manila now have
watel suppiY for longer hours'
De la Cruz said water availabiliq'
in the following areas had improved.
Makati-Mandaluyong (99 Per-.
-cent); Marikina (99 Percent); fuzal
(19 percent); Taguig-Pateros (98
percentj; PasiE (91 Percent); and
Quezon City (89 Percent).
'fhis means that customers resid-'
ing in rhese can have 12 hours ofi
water supply.
De la Cruz said their short-term
contingenry Plans to addr'ess the
supply deficit indude taking water
from the Laguna lake through the
Cardona WaterTreahent Plant Prol-
ect, which could Process 100 mld, the
re-activationof 101 decommissioned
deepwells, developing new deeplvell
sources, and deplol.'rnent of mobile
water tankers to affected areas
"By April, our suPPlY deficit will be
cut by balf. By Mav, ouL supplv deficit
will go down to 15 per,'entgivm all the
efforts I h.nt desaibed e wlta Hindi po
matufrJlog arrg l.ilafila Water (Manila
Waler will not sleep on the matter). All
opr employees are doing ourbest under
this water supply sinratiorl" he added.
Malacanang shot down the ProPosal
of National Economic and Develop-
ment Authodty Director Ceneral Er-
nesto Pemia to create a DeDartmmt
of Water to consolidate the functions
of several water agmcies, as weJl as
. effecirely addres any water shortage
GLEE JALEA AND RALPH ED'
WIN.U. VILLANUEVA
pA\q€"