Mahipus tells DCWD to purchase generators

By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.
Councilor Diosdado A. Mahipus yesterday urged the Davao City Water District (DCWD) to procure generator sets so that the flow of water distribution will not be disrupted if there is a power outage.
In yesterday’s regular City Council session, Mahipus said water distribution was adversely affected during last month’s rotational blackouts.
“My attention was caught with the fact that during brownouts, the DCWD also experienced shortage of supply or rather the City of Davao also experienced shortage of water supply,” Mahipus said in his privilege speech.
He said the pumping stations of DCWD that are the in charge of the distribution of supply in the city also need electricity to pump water.
He said during one such water service interruption, he called up DCWD and was told that it was due to a blackout.
Mahipus said it is “lamentable” that residents would experience both a power outage and water service interruption at exactly the same time.
“More than power and electricity, water is a basic need of man. I know we can survive without power or electricity for many days… but we will suffer a lot if there is no water,” he said.
Mahipus said he cannot see why the DCWD cannot continuously supply water to the residents of the city since it earns billions of pesos from its collections.
“There is no reason why they cannot buy, they cannot set aside funds to buy generator sets so that when brownout comes the water supply will continuously flow to the residents of Davao,” he said.
In a statement, DCWD spokesperson Bernardo D. Delima responded to Mahipus’ speech by saying the DCWD has a total of 54 production wells in the city, which means the procurement of new generator sets will cost P500 million for all production wells.
“DCWD is planning to put up generator sets in certain satellite stations in Tugbok, Toril, Lubogan, Cabantian, Panacan, Calinan Riverside, and Calinan Proper,” he said.
Delima said that if the Tamugan Water Supply facility will open by 2019, there is no need for generators since the flow will be operated through gravity from the source.
At the same time, he said the city’s water supply is no longer affected by blackouts because the 36 production wells at the Dumoy system have had a special power line from Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC) since last year.
“One to two-hour brownouts will not cause water stoppage,” he said.
Delima said a power outage of an hour or less will cause low water pressure in Cabantian and Panacan. If the outage is more than one hour, the water reserve will slowly get used up.