ITOGON, Benguet – The municipal government will continue to extend the necessary support to guarantee the sustained operation of the local water district while it is still in its organizational stage.
Mayor Bernard S. Waclin assured that his administration will continue providing for the annual fund allocation to ensure the continuous operation of the water district’s office while it is looking for sources of potable water that will sustain the distribution of water to the residents in barangays that have problems in sourcing out their daily supply of water. He claimed the local water district provides limited services to Barangay Tuding and it is slowly expanding its operation to Barangay Ucab and eventually to barangays Gumatdang and Poblacion when it can tap other sources of potable water to augment the current water supply.
The mayor reported some initial possible sources of water identified by the water district but costly to bring the treated water to the households thus the district is still searching for other potential areas which can supply the needed additional water for the households in the town’s various barangays.
Mayor Waclin pointed out that the local water district is striving to bring potable water to households in the most feasible way at the cheapest possible cost and that is sourcing water that do not require expensive large-scale development.
According to him, water is a basic need of the people that is why concerned government agencies and the municipal government must work closely to bring water to households in the town’s different barangays at the least possible cost.
He stipulated that the lower barangays of the municipality might not have problems in the supply of water but there is still a need for the water district to formulate short, medium and long-term programs that will allow people to have access to potable water supply in the future for the benefit of enticing people to live in the communities and investors to establish their businesses in the locality.
The mayor said that in the meantime, the water district and the municipal government will utilize the available supply for the residents of Tuding and nearby Ucab because it is really difficult to locate sustainable sources of potable water within the locality, especially with the prevailing issues of alleged contamination, among others in relation to ownership.
Waclin said that both the water district and the municipal government will be updating the public on the results of ongoing search for potential sources of water to further expand the water district’s operation to the increasing number of households in the various barangays.
