ITOGON, Benguet – Residents of the municipality must be the first to benefit from the town’s water resources through the stable supply of potable water to their homes, Mayor Bernard S. Waclin said here recently.
Waclin made the pronouncement following reports that there are some companies that are setting their sights on some water resources in the municipality as their targeted source to provide potable water supply in Baguio City through the so-called bulk water project of the Baguio Water District (BWD).
“We will not allow any company to use our existing water resources to provide potable supply for other areas. We will invoke the necessary condition that prior to the issuance of the needed permit, the proponent must make sure that the potable water requirements of our constituents must first be provided and that the excess supply will be the one that will be sold outside the locality,” Mayor Waclin stressed.
The local chief executive pointed out that the people of Itogon should be the ones benefitting from any development to be done by interested companies wanting to source out the supply of potable water because the municipality is also experiencing some problems in terms of potable water supply for the residents like other places.
He claimed that companies wanting to develop and utilize the town’s water resources must also first secure the necessary consent of the local government, thus, one of the conditions that will surely be imposed is that the potable water supply concerns of the municipality must first be addressed by the proponent before dealing with the water issues and concerns of other places.
Earlier, some proponents of the Baguio Water District’s bulk water supply project that aims to provide some 50,000 cubic meters of potable water daily to Baguio City are eying potential water sources in certain barangays in the municipality as their main source to be able to realize the said endeavor.
BWD’s bulk water project has been a long standing endeavor that seeks to tap the expertise of companies that are involved in providing water supply to help in sourcing out other water resources outside the city to be able to sustain the provision of daily supply of potable water to residents and tourists alike.
Mayor Waclin emphasized that the local government will surely impose the Itogon first policy because local officials do not want that their constituents will be left behind in the provision of potable water supply and for them to benefit from the exploitation and development of the current water resources of the locality.
Itogon is the most feasible place to source out the necessary potable water supply for BWD’s bulk water project because of its proximity to Baguio City and the numerous existing water resources that could be tapped for the said purpose aside from needing the least investment to bring water to the city compared to sourcing out the water from other areas in Benguet that are distant from Baguio.
Waclin asserted that proponents of the BWD’s bulk water project must first coordinate with the local government before conducting any activity in the municipality to prevent any problems that may arise during the course of the conduct of the feasibility study for the said endeavor. By Dexter A. See
