Tagkawayan: small but best
By Teodoro M. Reynoso

In the last LWUA-Water District Forum held in Tagaytay City, Tagkawayan Water District (TWD), operator of the water supply system of Tagka-wayan, Quezon since 1980, was adjudged as the country’s Outstanding Water District in the Small WD Category.

It was the second time it was given the honor, the first coming in 1995.

For TWD general manager Cirilo Frondoso, while the first was memorable, it was sweeter the second time around. And why not? For eight long years between 1996-2003, TWD had to content itself as close runner-up or mere honorable mention.

“It was gratifying to learn that in bagging the award again, we have to best the good small water districts of the other regions, from North Luzon, Bicol-Visayas and Mindanao”, GM Frondoso enthused when this writer visited him recently.
“I don’t remember the format in 1995 but I am not quite sure if the competition for the honor was as keen and suspenseful as the recent one,” he hastened to add.

A bigger reason for pride and jubilation was the fact that the TWD achievement meant another “pogi” point for the town of Tagkawayan which still needs image face-lifting due to lingering public misconceptions mainly of the town as an NPA country.

In the 70s up to the late 80s, the mere mention of Tagkawayan evoked the image of an isolated, impoverished hinterland community virtually crawling with NPA rebels and government soldiers constantly locked in violent shooting wars if they were not on R&R.

The image is only partly true, according to GM Frondoso. Tagkawayan at that time was largely isolated since it was virtually accessible only by rail.

The construction and opening of the Quirino Highway as the main alternate route from Manila to the Bicol heartland early in the past decade has for all intents and purposes put a close to Tagkawayan’s relative isolation as the highway cuts across a large swathe of its territory.

The Outstanding Small Water District award it won speaks well not only of TWD but the town of Tagkawayan itself, GM Frondoso said.

According to GM Frondoso, TWD won its second Outstanding WD award on the strength of its superior performance in CY 2004 in the following areas:

1. Marketing - Total of 1,700 service connections including 12 big commercial prawn hatcheries that are equivalent to 50 residential concessionaires each.
2. Area Coverage - As of CY 2004, the TWD has covered all seven barangays in its original service area per its CCC and has expanded its service to an additional one barangay for a total of eight. Total barangays of the town is 45 but most are far-flung predominantly agricultural communities that TWD hopes to eventually reach out to through the development of independent water systems thereat.
   
3. Non-Revenue Water - Only 17 percent NRW that has been achieved through rehabilitation of existing mainlines and replacement of saddle clamps, bolts and fittings with stainless steel.
   
4. Collection Efficiency - Average of 92 percent, with highs of 99 percent, collection efficiency achieved through strict implementation of collection and disconnection policies.
   
5. Water Quality - Hypochlorinators at the Sakang Source and Bamban Pumping Station plus slow sand filter in the infiltration gallery at Sakang ensure the safety and potability of water supply. Monthly examination is done in coordination with the local Rural Health Office.
   
6. Employee-to-Connections Ratio - With just 14 employees including the general manager and a total connection of 1,700 as of CY 2004, TWD maintains a very healthy 1: 137 employee-to-connections ratio, above the industry average.
   
7. Debt Service - TWD has been current in its debt service to LWUA amounting to more than P162,000 monthly.

GM Frondoso attributed TWD’ s above average performance mainly to the good working relationship between the management and the TWD Board of Directors headed by long-time buddy Joseph Pua as Chairman, and between him and his staff.

GM Frondoso and Chairman Pua have been friends and business confidants for many years but it was only when the latter joined TWD as Board Member and later Chairman in 2001 that they forged a formal working partnership that has brought wonders to the water district’s operations.

Chairman Pua, who operates a fish hauling company that supplies fish and other marine and aquatic products to Metro Manila, has been fully supportive of GM Frondoso’s strategies and initiatives that have resulted to the ever-improving and more efficient operations of the TWD.

Among these initiatives and strategies according to GM Frondoso are:

1. Promotion of self-initiative and decision-making among the employees to handle the WD’s daily affairs. This has enabled the employees to exercise their discretion and make decisions even in the absence of the GM particularly on matters within their competence to act or decide.
   
2. Leadership by Example. Though highly successful he has been in whatever business he has ventured in, GM Frondoso believes in leadership by example.
   
3. Promotion of Employee Productivity and Quick Response capability through improved communication system. Management provides each field personnel with cell phone, half of the price of which plus free load worth P300 monthly shouldered by the WD.
   
4. Continuous human resource development. As an entrepreneur by heart, GM Frondoso believes in properly investing on people to attain desired results. He regularly sends some of his staff for training for skills upgrading.
   
5. Continuous system improvement. The TWD since 2001 has optimized availed of LWUA funding assistance for the improvement and expansion of the water system such that the WD is now in the position to fund succeeding development projects out of its own internal cash generations.
   
6. Continuous improvement of working condition. With savings from previous projects, acquired a lot and constructed a 195 sq. meter office building at the cost of just over a million pesos. Office is now fully furnished and with airconditioning but the WD management and staff deferred such comforts until after first effecting the targeted improvements in the water service.
   
7. Improvisation. Putting to good use the auto-mechanical skills he acquired during his exposure in his family trucking and construction business, GM Frondoso managed to convert the WD’s stationary standby genset into a mobile one putting it on the flatform built upon the chassis of a old service vehicle.

According to GM Frondoso, the TWD is moving to fully saturate its existing service area preparatory to its planned program to reach into the other still accessible outlying barangays so that the benefit of potable piped water can finally be accessed by more Tagkawayanons.

Once adequate and reliable piped potable water could be realized in those areas, progress would not be very far behind.c