ILOILO City – Barely a month after they came up with a six-month provisional supply agreement, bulk water supplier Flo Water Resources (Iloilo), Inc. stopped delivering water to Metro Pacific Iloilo Water (MPIW) effective 2 p.m. yesterday.
According to Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) OIC general manager Amarylis Josephine Castro, Flo Water will not sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) if there is a condition that an independent third party appraiser would review Flo Water’s P21 per cubic meter selling price to MPIW.
“The purpose of the independent third party appraiser is to determine whether the P21 per cubic meter is really the right price. That will also serve as the initial price for the extension of the contract,” said Castro.
In a separate statement, MPIW stressed that the MOU is the legal basis for the computation of the P21 per cubic meter payment to Flo Water.
The third party appraiser will determine the appropriate rate for the provisional agreement and future bulk water rate. This will also serve as one of the bases for the water rate increase request to the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) that will be passed on to customers once approved, if and when the rate increase is inevitable.
The third party appraiser will determine the appropriate rate which will be passed on to our customers if and when a price increase is inevitable.
The MIWD manager stressed that tapping the independent third party appraiser was agreed upon during a meeting joined by Iloilo governor Arthur Defensor Jr. and Iloilo City mayor Jerry Treñas last month.
During that meeting, MPIW and Flo Water agreed for a six months provisional agreement to extend Flo Water’s supply of bulk water to MPIW at P21 per cubic meter after the May 15, 2022 contract expiration with MIWD.
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 MPIW’s 19,000 to 20,000 service connections in Pavia, Leganes and Iloilo City.
MPIW is the joint venture of MIWD and Metro Pacific Water for the operation, rehabilitation and maintenance of water distribution and wastewater management facilities of the water district.
With the current situation, Castro said they will go back to scheduling of water availability. MPIW customers in affected areas will experience rotational service interruption until further notice.
MPIW assured that they will do their best to distribute the available water supply to all our customers through scheduled rotational water supply and water delivery to strategic areas through “tankering” while it continuously implements non-revenue water development programs to save more water.
Areas directly impacted by the decreased water supply will be Santa Barbara, Leganes, Pavia, Jaro North, Jaro South, Mandurriao, La Paz, Lapuz, City Proper, Molo, and Arevalo./PN
