TUBA, Benguet – Some seven thousand residents of barangay Poblacion and other adjoining barangays will benefit from the put up of a new water system that will maximize the potentials of existing water sources in the municipality.
Mayor Ignacio Rivera said the local government is in the process of bidding out the initial phase of the project geared towards providing the residents with sufficient and sustainable water supply to meet their daily needs in their homes and businesses in the municipality.
The local government took over from the Baguio Water District (BWD) a spring in Badioan which will be the main source of water where pipelines will then channel the water to a distribution tank that will be constructed along a government property near Marcos highway where the residents will source their supply of potable water.
“We want to effectively and efficiently address the water needs of our constituents in some of the barangays which are rapidly progressing that is why we were constrained to work for the realization of the project,” Rivera stressed.
The local chief executive said some P18 million will be used for the implementation of the initial stages of the project that will include a water treatment facility capable of treating rain water from a catchment basin to be erected at the upper portion of the barangays to serve as an added source of water.
According to him, the documentary requirements for the project, particularly the requirements from concerned government agencies like the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), were completed before the local government bidded out the project hoping it will commence the soonest.
He explained the distribution tanks will be made of metal instead of the usual concrete tanks to lower the cost of the project and make maintenance.
Rivera emphasized water is a basic necessity which must be available to the residents thus the local government continues to venture on similar projects in other clustered areas to make sure that the increasing number of people wanting to live in the municipality will be assured of adequate supply of potable water.
He reported that funds for the town’s water system project were sourced from the 20 percent local development fund of the municipal government for the current year it being identified in the town’s Annual Investment Plan, the blueprint for the overall development of the municipality.
Tuba is one of the five first-class municipalities in Benguet that primarily derives bulk of its externally and internally generated funds from the operation of Philex Mining Corporation, the country’s largest gold and copper producer, which is projected to end mine life by year 2022 depending on the outcome of the current projects being undertaken by the company to evaluate and assess its operations in the Padcal area.
By HENT
