Archive for March 2009
Iloilo’s next battleground: Water
The Board of Directors of the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) is reportedly set to resist the threatened take-over of the water utility firm by the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) under its new chairman, Prospero “Butch” Pichay.
The MIWD has been given 30 days by Pichay to “shape up or ship out” after he discovered evidence of gross mismanagement of the water district, particularly with its failure to stop the huge volume of leakages resulting to losses in revenue and inability to improve the flow of potable water to the city’s households.
Pichay was incensed three weeks ago when he handed a check for P2 million as grant from LWUA to help the water utility built a line connection to a relocation site, only to discover upon examining the MIWD’s books of accounts that it had nearly P200 million as retained earnings in the bank.
“With so much money, why wasn’t the MIWD taking concrete steps to solve the company’s problems and improve services?” asked a fuming Pichay.
Indeed, it’s very hard to explain why a company awash with cash can’t do anything about its myriad of problems. What makes it uglier is that this is the home water district of erstwhile LWUA administrator Larry Jamora. During the seven years that Jamora was LWUA chief, why was he unable to do anything to resolve these problems?
Pride is apparently egging the MIWD board of directors to resist Pichay’s initiatives.
But Pichay doesn’t care about wounded pride. What’s important to him is the improvement of the water supply services to Iloilo city and the municipalities being serviced by MIWD.
“I will not even allow politics to come into the picture,” Pichay told me last Friday when we met at his office in the LWUA headquarters.
With this refusal of MIWD to let LWUA to step into the picture, it would appear that water will become the next battleground in Iloilo City.
