Water utilities must be gov't owned only, say

DAVAO City Councilor Danny Dayanghirang said, that as water is a basic need, it should be government-owned and not be privatized.

During the Kapehan sa Dabaw press conference at SM City Davao last Monday, May 28, Dayanghirang said the Davao City Water District (DCWD) had submitted a proposal on a program that will establish huge sewerages under the main streets of the city. However, he said, on the proposal it was stated that part of the cost will be shouldered by the customers as well.

“The problem here is the government is delegating the right to collect on the services rendered by the private sector. Is that legally feasible? Especially that these are utilities and if you give that to the private sector, they will make it into a busi- ness,” said Dayanghirang.

“Water should not be a business because these are just God’s given resource. What we should need only is to pay the water, let the water flow and maintain the connection but it has become already an enterprise,” he added.

Dayanghirang said a water treatment facility is indeed a necessity. He cited as an example huge cities such as Singapore that have their big sewerages constructed below their main streets. He said Davao City used to have this a long time ago but because of a lot of repairs and road adjustments, it was damaged and was not further maintained. He said this should actually be the responsibility of DCWD.

Although DCWD currently operates like a pseudo-government agency, Dayanghirang said they’re trying to align with the private sector through their partnerships with Apo Agua Infrastructura, Inc. among others.

“The City Legal was commissioned to look at it. As far as I’m concerned, I want to see their feasibility study because we just approved the bulk water program, and the water has not yet been beneficial to the people of district 2, here comes another one,” he said.

The bulk water project that Dayanghirang mentioned was the project of the DCWD and Apo Agua tapping Tamugan River to supply about 300 million liters of water per day to five water systems of Dumoy, Calinan, Tugbok, Panacan, and Cabantian, as well as three additional water systems in Talandang, Mandug, and Indangan.