For the first time, Gov. Gwen Garcia meets the members of the Provincial Water Resources Authority (PWRA) on October 23, at the Capitol.
While the Governor is the chairman of PWRA, its members include the chairmen of the different Provincial Board committees, representative mayors from the component cities and municipalities of the province, business sector, and the academe.
The PB committees represented at the PWRA include the committee on waterworks systems and communication (chaired by Board Member Mike Villamor); committee on environmental conservation and natural resources (chaired by BM Jiembo Borgonia); committee on public health (chaired by BM Stanley Caminero); and committee on planning and development as well as committee on budget and appropriations (both chaired by BM Glenn Soco).
The president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines Cebu Chapter, a position currently held by Daanbantayan Mayor Mayor Sun Shimura; and the president of the Association of Barangay Captains in Cebu Province, currently held by Board Member Celestino Martinez III, also have seats at the PWRA.
Of the board members enumerated, BM Soco, BM Villamor, and BM Borgonia were present, while Mayor Shimura was represented by Consolacion Mayor Teresa Alegado, vice president of LMP Cebu; and Toledo City Mayor Marjorie Perales represented the component cities.
The PWRA is created under Section 8 of Provincial Ordinance No. 2022-08 or the “Water Code of the Province of Cebu of 2022”.
Under the ordinance, its approval shall be sought in the extraction of water in any part of the Province, whether the water be appropriated for residential, commercial, or industrial use. As such, it has the power to approve and issue permits for water application, as well as revoke and suspend water permits already granted.
It is also tasked among many others “to formulate and establish a systematic and comprehensive plan to develop all water resources to include bulk water supply system in the Province of Cebu”; as well as prescribe rules that shall regulate the utilization and distribution of water and the creation of water utilities and transmission lines in the province.
The ordinance also empowers the PWRA to prescribe and fix tariffs and fees, subject to the approval of the Provincial Board, for the water used and supplied to consumers of water projects in the province.
The creation of the PWRA will enable to Capitol to properly manage its ambitious bulk water supply project that involves an initial 25 local government units. As a priority project of Gov. Garcia, it has an allocation of P3.3 billion this year for the construction of water treatment facilities, reservoir, and pipelines from the water source down to the individual households.
On October 28, Gov. Garcia will lead the inauguration of the newly completed Capitol-funded bulk water supply project in Moalboal.
The Capitol has spent at least P317 million for the project that is expected to supply 6,000 cubic meters of water daily to at least 8,690 households in 9 barangays of the town. | BJR