Water everywhere but no water to be found*Water is reckoned as a source of life. It provides a range of benefits to mankind in all aspects of human and societal development. With water, we can absolutely live without consuming food; nature continues to provide all the necessary things all living things necessitate. In our city, one of the major sources of livelihood is derived from the big bodies of water that surround it. This does not give any problem to everyone considering that there is abundance of available aquatic resources including fish catches that activate our fishing industries in the region. Even with potable water supply that provides thousands of consumers, we are also blessed with freshwater resources that are overflowing with all feasible advantages and benefits that come from them. Knowing also the geography of Tacloban City, one can really say that water is everywhere. But there is no water to be found in the pipes of most consumers in our city! If these pipes were only given the opportunity to put across their predicament, there is no way that they would be talking. Not with the reality that pipes do not talk, but because, they had been long dead of tremendous thirst and dehydration! Of course, with this kind of problem, the city government of Tacloban, being the local government unit responsible for the welfare of its constituents, will take all the blame. Those who are totally unaware of the reality behind this would really react on the irresponsibility and ineptitude of our city leaders. Conversely, our city leaders particularly the city mayor is not to blame for this! To row the boat, the Office of the City Mayor had initiated steps on solving this perennial water problem of the city. The idea of having a sole water district of Tacloban had long been pre-thought, planned and somehow started but some would rather block than support it. Eventually, the set-up got redesigned with small water impounding projects in areas with intense problem but with good water source as the good Mayor could not be stopped finding solutions. The entire water consumers of the City of Tacloban are subscribed to the Leyte Metropolitan Water District which is under the administrative control of the provincial government of Leyte. This administrative authority grants the highest official of the provincial government to appoint the LMWD board of directors who will then sit en banc to assign a general manager.  From what the majority of Taclobanons have observed, the water facility is in default of its mandate to provide adequate water to Tacloban.  These observations on inadequate and inefficient services of the LMWD have long been there for several years now. The people of Tacloban do not deserve such service! Consumers pay the exact amount corresponding to the billing statements issued by LMWD. But, the services offered in return to these payments do not meet with the expectations of an average water consumer. Taclobanons can barely use the water which is supposed to flow out from their faucets. How many more years do we have to wait to get the best services of our water district? One of the very possible ways to change things for the better in relation to this water problem of the city is to transfer the administrative command of LMWD to the city government of Tacloban. The city of Tacloban will get its fair share of the good services expected to have been delivered by the LMWD. How is this possible? Tacloban should at least get 75 percent of its sharing in the total consumers within the jurisdiction of the water district. Presently, Tacloban has only 71.8 percent. In reality, the city should have exceeded the 75 percent sharing, had it not been for the “One-meter policy” issued by the board of directors of LMWD. This policy asserts that there should only be one water meter for every subdivision in the city. What is more surprising is that this policy holds true only in Tacloban City. The other eight municipalities under the concern of LMWD are off the hook from this policy. This fight for justice against the water problem in Tacloban City is continually growing as the unfairness is also getting widespread. Taclobanons have to connive with and help its city leaders in this pursuit. No one deserves from the ill treatment rendered by the current water district. *This is a line taken from the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge entitled The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. By: Jed Paolo A. Cairo

Water is reckoned as a source of life. It provides a range of benefits to mankind in all aspects of human and societal development. With water, we can absolutely live without consuming food; nature continues to provide all the necessary things all living things necessitate.

In our city, one of the major sources of livelihood is derived from the big bodies of water that surround it. This does not give any problem to everyone considering that there is abundance of available aquatic resources including fish catches that activate our fishing industries in the region. Even with potable water supply that provides thousands of consumers, we are also blessed with freshwater resources that are overflowing with all feasible advantages and benefits that come from them. Knowing also the geography of Tacloban City, one can really say that water is everywhere.

But there is no water to be found in the pipes of most consumers in our city! If these pipes were only given the opportunity to put across their predicament, there is no way that they would be talking. Not with the reality that pipes do not talk, but because, they had been long dead of tremendous thirst and dehydration!

Of course, with this kind of problem, the city government of Tacloban, being the local government unit responsible for the welfare of its constituents, will take all the blame. Those who are totally unaware of the reality behind this would really react on the irresponsibility and ineptitude of our city leaders. Conversely, our city leaders particularly the city mayor is not to blame for this! To row the boat, the Office of the City Mayor had initiated steps on solving this perennial water problem of the city. The idea of having a sole water district of Tacloban had long been pre-thought, planned and somehow started but some would rather block than support it. Eventually, the set-up got redesigned with small water impounding projects in areas with intense problem but with good water source as the good Mayor could not be stopped finding solutions.

The entire water consumers of the City of Tacloban are subscribed to the Leyte Metropolitan Water District which is under the administrative control of the provincial government of Leyte. This administrative authority grants the highest official of the provincial government to appoint the LMWD board of directors who will then sit en banc to assign a general manager.  From what the majority of Taclobanons have observed, the water facility is in default of its mandate to provide adequate water to Tacloban.  These observations on inadequate and inefficient services of the LMWD have long been there for several years now. The people of Tacloban do not deserve such service! Consumers pay the exact amount corresponding to the billing statements issued by LMWD. But, the services offered in return to these payments do not meet with the expectations of an average water consumer. Taclobanons can barely use the water which is supposed to flow out from their faucets. How many more years do we have to wait to get the best services of our water district?

One of the very possible ways to change things for the better in relation to this water problem of the city is to transfer the administrative command of LMWD to the city government of Tacloban. The city of Tacloban will get its fair share of the good services expected to have been delivered by the LMWD. How is this possible? Tacloban should at least get 75 percent of its sharing in the total consumers within the jurisdiction of the water district. Presently, Tacloban has only 71.8 percent. In reality, the city should have exceeded the 75 percent sharing, had it not been for the “One-meter policy” issued by the board of directors of LMWD. This policy asserts that there should only be one water meter for every subdivision in the city. What is more surprising is that this policy holds true only in Tacloban City. The other eight municipalities under the concern of LMWD are off the hook from this policy.

This fight for justice against the water problem in Tacloban City is continually growing as the unfairness is also getting widespread. Taclobanons have to connive with and help its city leaders in this pursuit. No one deserves from the ill treatment rendered by the current water district.

*This is a line taken from the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge entitled The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

By: Jed Paolo A. Cairo

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