• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Bacolod City Water District-PrimeWater said May 3 there are at least 12 barangays with zero to four hours of water available every day, due to the prolonged El Niño.
As per its water availability map, these barangays include Tangub, Handumanan, Mandalagan, Felisa, Vista Alegre, Villamonte, Taculing, Alijis, Sum-ag, Mansilingan, Barangay 40, and Banago.
“Supply of water in these areas are greatly affected due to El Niño since there have been a decrease in the supply from the bulk water supplier,” the Baciwa-PrimeWater said in a press release, but stressed that it “actively pursues several initiatives to continuously improve water services.”
The water availability map, however, is as of March 15, and the number of barangays experiencing low or no-water is now higher, with the impact of the El Niño greatly felt starting on the last week of March.
The Bacolod City government also started its “Patubig sa Barangay”, or water distribution and rationing, early last month. It said that about 526,000 liters of water had been delivered to 26,629 El Niño-hit households in the past three weeks.
Baciwa-PrimeWater also said that, to mitigate the effects of El Niño, it has deployed 24 water tanks with 2,000 liters capacity in the 12 barangays mostly affected.
PrimeWater also has five water trucks doing daily water rationing and delivery to address the increasing demands, it added.
An additional supply of five million liters of water a day (MLD) from the Bocal-Bocal Spring will be operational by the second week of May to improve the water situation in north Bacolod, while an ongoing pipeline and interconnection project, from Forbes Hill to North Circumferential Road, for an additional 2MLD could improve the areas of Eroreco, Bata, and Mandalagan by the end of this month.
The partnership is working diligently to enhance water services across its served areas, the Baciwa-PrimeWater stressed. | CGC
