BUTUAN CITY—A five-man fact finding team formed by Administrator Andres F. Ibarra of the Local Water Utilities Administration has three months to finish its investigation on Butuan City Water District and submit its final report.
The Butuan Water Rights Alliance requested Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) and the Commission on Audit (COA) central offices in Manila to conduct probe on their complaints against the only water firm supplying potable water to nearly 300,000 residents of Butuan.
The LWUA fact finding team composed of top LWUA middle level executives with support staff arrived in Butuan City August 11 and returned to Manila yesterday afternoon of August 14.
Last February, the Butuan City Government declared the entire city under “State of Water Crisis” after a month-long water supply interruption caused an uproar from city residents prompting private and government sectors to help affected city residents through water rationing.
BWRA lead convenors Dr. Potenciano Malvar who is also Butuan-Agusan Hotel and Restaurant Association President and former Butuan City Rep. Charito Plaza requested in their letters to the LWUA Administrator to conduct performance audit on BCWD’s operations, administration and inspection of water facilities construction and condition of the water supply allegedly no longer potable as it is required by the law that created water districts.
The law requires all water districts in the country to make its water supply safe to drink and safe for human consumption and make available water supply flow up to the last water pipe and farthest communities it can reach.
Malvar complained one of the setbacks affecting Butuan City tourism initiatives, problems affecting hotel and restaurant businesses is the lack of water supply and the high cost of water, BCWD allegedly imposed on commercial and business establishments and even residential houses.
According to BWRA lead convenor former Congresswoman Ching Plaza, the LWUA fact finding team is composed of Roberto San Andres, Engr. Danilo De Leon, former BCWD General Manager Alfredo Bayanin, who is LWUA in charge for Mindanao operations; Maria Luz E. Del Puerto and Jesselyn Catapang.
The team collected water samples from BCWD to be brought to Manila for laboratory testing after BWRA showed to the LWUA Administrator some samples of water from BCWD which were allegedly smelled like rusty steel.
The team requested no media interviews or photos saying it wanted to conduct the investigation away from the limelight.
San Andres however promised to go public with the final findings of the probe team.
BWRA also requested the Commission on Audit to probe Butuan City Water District’s financial conditions, loan obligations reportedly to have already reached to P1-B, P28-M in COA disallowances on BCWD’s bonuses, travels and other expenses, alleged questionable foreign acquired AMF-ABF filters costing P120-M and the controversial P565-M PPP project, BCWD signed with private firms.
COA Commissioner Heidi Mendoza promised BWRA that a COA fact finding will also arrive in Butuan City anytime soon.