Dutch firm partners with COWD to end city floods

AN international water operator based in The Netherlands has inked partnership with Cagayan de Oro City District (COWD) and six other organizations as they move for a wholesome approach towards ending flooding in the city and boosting the efficiency of water supply here.

Vitens Evides International (VEI), an international venture of six Dutch water companies active in 22 countries, has partnered with the COWD, Wetlands International, Unifrutti, Hineleban Foundation, Cagayan de Oro Riverbasin Management Council, FRRL Industrial Trading Corporation, and both the country and Netherland’s Red Cross.

Engineer Bienvenido Batar Jr., COWD’s general manager, said the project has various work packages. One is to stabilize and sustain the catchment areas in Bukidnon and create a reforestation plan to prevent flooding in Cagayan de Oro.

He said the project also provides 7,000 water connections to households in relocation sites. Currently, the COWD has identified 2,000 households which are considered beneficiaries of the project.

It is also expected to boost the efficiency of COWD, in terms of the reduction of the non-revenue water, and resiliency of the water district’s facilities.

Ambassador of the Netherlands Embassy in the Philippines described the project as sustainable, saying this will not only help solve the flooding problem in the city but will also provide income to the workers for the reforestation program.

“In the first few years of the project, the 7,000 families in relocation sites will benefit but in the long run, the whole Cagayan de Oro because we will also work on the upstream challenges, reforestation,” she said.

“If you make sure that the people who live there, get income, and then earn a little bit from planting, if you develop a model, it will assure a river that is flowing all year long in a moderate way, not like now, sometimes its dry, sometimes we have terrible flood,” she added.