USD800,000 grant to upgrade Cagayan De Oro water services

• Source:http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=846075
• Tuesday, January 12, 2016

(PNA), FFC/CD/MARK FRANCISCO

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Jan. 13 (PNA) -– The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is assisting the main local water utility here to recoup from its gargantuan losses due to perennial leakages of its pipes.

In a memorandum of agreement signed Wednesday in partnership with the Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, the local Cagayan De Oro Water District (COWD) would get a USD800,000 grant for the water district to carry out hydraulic modeling and repair its leaked pipes.

Leaked water pipes drained the COWD of about 80,000 cubic meters of water daily or 49.5 percent of what the water district produces.

“The daily water losses is unacceptable,” Ladele A. Sagrado, the COWD spokesperson, said, citing that the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) allows only, at least, a 20 percent non-revenue water.

In the agreement, the grant also covers technical assistance for waste water reduction strategy and implementation, mapping an updated geographic information system database and as well as an updated district metered area design.

Sagrado said that a survey of all facilities and customers within the focus areas will first be conducted to update existing records in order to update the COWD’s database.

The survey includes tagging of watering meters and ultimately leading to the laying of new pipes. Engineering works would be undertaken by Miya, a global leader in optimizing urban water efficiency.

The fund would be taken from the “USAID’s Be Secure Project,” a Philippines-specific program aimed at strengthening the water sector regulatory reform in the country.

Part of the fund or PHP458 million would be also be loaned from the government-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).

Sagrado said that the role of the Coca-Cola Foundation is to use the total volume of water saved to offset its own commercial water consumption and reduce its water footprint.

She said that the COWD expects to reduce the non-revenue water by 30 percent once the project is completed in 2017.

The signing of the agreement Wednesday was witnessed by USAID Philippines director on environment Jeremy Gustafson, USAID’s Be Secure Project chief of party Mona Greiser, Coca-cola Foundation Philippines president Cecilia Alcantara and the Public Works and Highways Undersecretary Catalina Cabral.