With the current water supply and flooding issues plaguing Davao City and other areas in the Davao Region, the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) cited the recommendations of experts for Davao City and Mindanao to consider more surface water and preserve the groundwater for future generations.
Assistant secretary Romeo Montenegro, MinDA deputy executive director, revealed on the sidelines of the Davao City Water Summit on July 4, 2023, that there is still quite a number of Dabawenyos that have water availability challenge, specially in areas that have a low-pressure water supply.
“In terms of water-related issues, flooding is happening everywhere. Nakalitan na lang ta nga nahitabo sa Davao del Sur. The irony is there is a challenge in terms of access to potable water, but yet we have a lot of water everywhere,” he said in an interview.
He said in Davao City, there is a lot of surface water that is not maximized mainly because of the technology needed such as the wastewater treatment technology.
“If we look at Metro Manila ang ilahang tubig gikan sa dam then treated and eventually delivered to households. Ang atoa diri, freshwater gyud na siya. In fact, dili na i-treat kay gikan sa very pristine source but it’s a groundwater. So, we can continue to just rely on that but perhaps there is at some point an effort also to preserve our groundwater,” he said.
He also cited the water ordinances imposed by the city government of Davao, which include the prohibition of drilling free-flowing wells in water resource areas.
“Dili ka basta-basta makahimo ug balon lang sa imohang tugkaran, you have to get a permit for that because definitely, that is part of the effort to preserve our groundwater and tap the available surface water. This summit is revolving around these areas and issues and ways forward. That is exactly what we hoped that will arrive in the water summit,” he said.
