ILOILO City – For now, there will be no adjustments in the rate of water being distributed here despite the increase in the provisional selling price of water that Flo Water Resources (Iloilo), Inc. supplies to the Metro Pacific Iloilo Water (MPIW), according to the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD).
MPIW is a joint venture of Metro Pacific Water and MIWD.
The higher selling price of water in the six-month provisional water supply agreement with Flo Water could not be automatically passed on to consumers, said MIWD OIC-General Manager Amarylis Josephine Castro.
“May process for price increase,” she told Panay News.
MPIW and Flo Water agreed to P21 per cubic meter price for six months subject to an independent appraiser.
“MPIW will absorb whatever losses because of that particular purchase for the next six months. Indi automatically i-charge sa mga tawo,” said Castro.
As part of the process, MPIW will request from MIWD for a water rate increase detailing all the justifications, including the provisional agreement with Flo Water.
MIWD will evaluate the request and have it submitted to the MIWD Board of Directors (BODs) before it will undergo public hearing.
Once these are all done, the proposal will be forwarded to the Local Water Utility Administration (LWUA) for evaluation and appropriate action.
As the government’s regulatory for water districts, LWUA has the final say.
Castro noted as one of the considerations, MPIW cannot have an increase of more than five percent of the lowest income bracket based on the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Castro further noted that they would undergo a rebasing which is mandatory every five years under the JV agreement, probably next year. The water rate application, if there is one, will be incorporated here.
The six-month provisional water supply agreement between MPIW and Flo water was brokered by Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. and Mayor Jerry Treñas. It averted water rationing here and in parts of the municipalities of Pavia, Santa Barbara and Leganes.
The 10-year supply agreement of bulk water supplier Flo Water with MPIW ended on May 15, with Flo Water initially informing MIWD it was not renewing the contract after negotiations on the new pricing bogged down.
That same May 15, Defensor and Treñas sat down with MIWD and Flo Water executives to avert a water supply shortage.
“The parties, in the presence of Governor Defensor and me, agreed to an interim supply contract of six months,” Treñas told Panay News.
Within this six-month period, MIWD and Flo Water would continue haggling until they could come up with mutually acceptable terms, said Treñas.
Flo Water and its partner, Iloilo Prime Water Ventures Corp., supply 30,000 cubic meters of water daily (20,000 by Flo Water and 10,000 by Prime Water) to Metro Pacific Iloilo Water’s (MPIW) 19,000 to 20,000 service connections in Pavia, Leganes and Iloilo City.
Engineer Rob Cabiles, chief operating officer of MPIW, previously disclosed that Flo Water sought an increase in the price of water it delivers. It asked for P25 per cubic meter – more than double its current per cubic meter price of P11.72.
“We could not agree to such a price (P25 per cubic meter). Our customers will suffer for that very high price of water,” Cabiles had said./PN
