CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija – The Cabanatuan
City Water District has increased water rates among residential and commercial
establishments in the city by 16%, affecting 34,557 consumers with service
connections.
The
rate hike is in line with efforts by the CCWD to generate funds to finance an
expansion program of the CCWD, said general manager Mario Villasan.
Villasan
clarified that the latest tariff rate is actually not a a new rate increase as
the management only implemented the proposed sets of tariffs approved during a
public hearing in June last year whose implementation was held in abeyance for
more than a year because of the opposition made by affected sectors.
“Basically,
the 16% increase in water rates does not constitute a new increase since we
only enforced the prescribed rates which were approved during last year’s
public hearing,” he said.
In
fact, he added, what the CCWD only implemented was the water rate for 2012 with
the approved rate for 2013 still to be implemented.
He said they
actually tried to implement it in the past but decided to suspend it due to
numerous complaints. “It (new rate) was long overdue actually,” he said.
In
the hearing, held on June 27,2012, the approved water rates would be
implemented in four tranches. The 1st one involving a 16% increase
would take effect in September 2012 while the next tariff adjustments would be
implemented in September 2013 (17.7%), September 2015 (5.3%) and September 2017
(8%).
Based
on the water rates, residential and government establishments using the
smallest meter of size ½ will be levied a service charge of P192 for
consumption of up to 10 cubic meters while a size 4 meter will have a service
charge of P13,824.
For the same
smallest meter connection, a commodity charge of P21.60 will be collected for
consumption of between 11-20 cubic meters, P23.80 for 21-30 cubic meters,
P26.40 for 31-40 cubic meters, P29.60 for 41-50 cubic meters and P33.70 for
consumption ranging from 51 cubic meters and above.
For
commercial establishments using the smallest meter, the service charge ranges
from P240 to P384 and commodity charge of between P27 to P43.20 for consumption
of 11-20 cubic meters, P29.75 to P47.60 for 21-30 cubic meters, P33 to P52.80
for 31-40 cubic meters, P37 to P59.20 for 41-50 cubic meters and P42.15 to
P67.40 for consumption of 51 cubic meters and above.
The
series of rate adjustments would affect consumers in 67 of the city’s 89
barangays, 90% of whom are residential.
Villasan
said the rate adjustments are fair and
reasonable and affordable to low-income groups. He stressed that the CCWD will
still have the lowest water rates among “Category A” water districts which
refer to WDs with consumers of 30,000 and above.
“We
will be at par with the Angeles City Water District with the second lowest
water rate in Central Luzon, lower than the rates of Mabalacat and San Jose del
Monte,” he said.
Villasan
said that the tariff adjustment was necessary to enable the CCWD to tap fund
allocation for new water sources, raise additional budget to cover price
changes brought by inflation, address the decline in water sales due to the
lowering of water consumption, expansion of water services to 21 additional
barangays and compliance with the Clean Water Act.
He
said the expansion of services include construction of pumping stations, pipelines
and service area connections for unserved barangays, infiltration wells,
district metered areas, climate change adaptation measures and the
establishment of a clean water plant by 2014.
The
clean water plant (CWP) project, he said, will serve as a refilling station in
the unserved barangays not covered by the expansion. He added that a pilot CWP
has already been constructed in Barangay Bagong Sikat and is now serving
quality water for P15 per gallon of container.
In
pursuing a set of tariff adjustments, Villasan said the CCWD has complied with
the requirements set forth by the Local Water Utilities Administration which
prescribed that in determining the water rate, it must not exceed 60% of the
existing minimum and commodity charges and it must not exceed 5% of the minimum
charge for residential connections with the smallest water meter. (Manny
Galvez)
