Potable water is trucked or ferried bv banca to far-off barangays

Camarines Norte WD: Socializing water service
by Teodoro M. Reynoso

Quezon City---The Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) recently commended the Camarines Norte Water District (CNWD) for its mass socialized water supply program citing that it could serve as a model for other water districts in their bid to provide piped potable water to thousand of generally poor families living the far-flung,oftentimes Inaccessible rural hinterland and isolated island communities in the country.

LWUA Administrator Lorenzo H. Jamora said the CNWD socialized water supply program that it started to implement in 1998 has been successful in providing potable water access to hundreds of farmer and fisher folk families in the far interior and isolated island sitios and barangays of the capital Daet and the outlying towns of Vinzons, Mercedes, Labo and Talisay.

CNWD which also covers the towns of Basud and San Vicente currently supplies potable piped water to more than 18,000 regular paying service connectors in the seven towns of Camarines Norte that used to be served by the now-defunct provincial waterworks system until the establishment of the CNWD in 1975.

Despite this improvement, however, a sizable segment of the population in its area of coverage still remains unserved especially those in the interior, largely agricultural communities. And more than physical factors like distance and accessibility, the main constraint had been the prohibitive major expansion cost on the part of the water district and the lack of affordability on the part of the target consumers.

Jamora said the CNWD has been able to overcome these limiting factors and reach to these distant areas through three socialized water supply projects namely the Water Point or public faucet systems that cater to the water needs of communities that are relatively near to existing CNWD mains but cannot afford individual household connections; the Hatid- Tubig sa Barangay where drinking water is rationed daily through water lorries to sitios and barangays not yet reached by the system; and the so-called Hatid-Tubig sa Isla where potable water is ferried through a motorized banca for rationing to the hard-to-reach island communities.

Jamora said this recourse could be replicated by other water districts in the country especially those in areas with numerous hinterland or upland as well as isolated island communities where access to potable water is a most urgent need.

"This will entail not only a paradigm shift in the thinking or orientation on the part of water district policy-makers, managers and operators but also a strong will to go where water districts have not gone before", Jamora said. " However, I believe that the prevailing conditions in the potential market expansion areas not to mention the so-called "missionary routes" require innovation, creativity and improvisation on the part of the water districts", he added.

But where water supply development in place is not only feasible but also viable or could pay for itself, CNWD offers the option of a separate waterworks system as in the case of the populous but far-off barangay of Matnog in the town of Basud. In fact, the development of a modern waterworks system to cater to the individual household needs of Bgy. Matnog is already in the works following the approval by barangay officials and residents of the project as proposed by CNWD general manager Nanette Boma.

In a separate interview, GM Boma said that the water district is barely breaking even in its Hatid- Tubig programs catering to the distant hinterland and isolated island barangays but she said the water point public faucet systems, thanks to the cooperation of the barangay officials and residents, are more than paying for the cost of installation and operation and maintenance of the facilities. This, she said, has encouraged the CNWD to plan for the establishment of more water points to cover more barangays and sitios in Daet and other towns being served by the water district. At present, CNWD has 21 water points serving some 600 households or about 3,000 persons.

GM Boma explained that the CNWD socialized water program worked under the principle of retail selling where the consumers buy only the water that they need and can afford to pay for. In the case of the water point, through a barangay resolution, a resident is assigned to serve as caretaker who is also responsible in the safeguarding of the service line and in the retailing of water. The barangay retails water from the water point at P1.25 per 20-liter container or just six centavos per liter of water.

The barangay council shall be responsible for paying the CNWD for water drawn as per individual water point meter reading.

In the Hatid program, water is directly retailed by assigned water district personnel at the same price.