Metro Iloilo Water District, headed by its chairman of the Board of Directors, Celso Javelosa, turned over to the local government of Maasin its financial assistance for the maintenance and development of the watershed within the Maasin area.
The financial assistance is part of the agreement which MIWD and the LGU Maasin came into terms in lieu of the LGU share which the Water District has suspended payment in the wake of two opinions issued separately by the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) in 2006.
The assistance was sealed through a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed by Mayor Mariano Malones, Jr. representing the local government of Maasin and Ernesto Caberoy, officer-in-charge of MIWD at the time of MOA signing.

The MOA provides that the MIWD shall “make available and deposit in the Trust Account of the LGU-Maasin the amount of Php1,000,000.00 for 2008 and succeeding years for.

On the other hand, the local government is required to “prepare a program of work and financial plan for the amount of P 1million for the rehabilitation, improvement, protection and development of the watershed area in accordance with sound engineering practices.”
It is also obliged to submit a copy to MIWD of the duly audited financial statement by the Commission on Audit.
It was further agreed that the MOA “shall not prejudice the right of the LGU-Maasin to collect the LGU share from the MIWD should this issue be resolved in favor of the former.”
The agreement was reached in a meeting among Rep. Arthur Defensor of Iloilo Third District, Board Member Mariano Malones, Sr. and top officials of MIWD.
It can be recalled that MIWD deferred payment of the share of the local government of Maasin from the former’s gross sales of water for fiscal years 2005-2008 pending the opinions of the OGCC.
This came in the wake of a query made by then Mayor Malones Sr., now a board member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Iloilo, requesting “opinion on the rightful treatment of the 35% share allocated to Barangay in the utilization of national wealth in accordance with the Local Government Code of 1991.”
The OGCC, however, opined that “local water districts are exempted from payment of share to the LGUs in the utilization of water” as provided for in OGCC Opinion No. 043, series of 2002 addressed to the general manager of Tagaytay City Water District and OGCC Opinion No. 150, series of 2003 addressed to the General Manager of Ilocos Norte Water District.

TOP

In its quest to improve its delivery by increasing its service coverage and its operating efficiency, Metro Iloilo Water District welcomes ten team members from the Castalia Strategic Advisors, who were sent by the World Bank (WB) to give technical assistance in the different aspects of MIWD such as market, technical, operational, institutional and legal.
On March 23, 2009, Castalia, headed by its Project Manager Melissa Rekas, together with its Filipino counterpart, Pöyry-IDP, began its inception phase by presenting to the management and Board of Directors of MIWD their present consultation strategy and work plan, and gave a timetable when the project is expected to be done.
Prior to this, the team made courtesy calls to the different local chief executives within the MIWD service area to explain to them the purpose of the study.

It also appeared in one of the sessions of the Iloilo provincial board. This six-month project plan began in February 2009 and is set to be finished August of this year. Castalia is an international consulting firm that specializes in infrastructure sectors, including water. It has done and it is currently doing several projects in the Philippines, especially in the water and electricity sectors.
On the other hand, Pöyry-IDP is a management consulting firm, based in Manila, which specializes particularly in water supply, regulation, and sanitation. It has carried out projects in the Philippines and abroad.

The consultants will partner with MIWD’s Project Management Team (PMT) that was especially created by the MIWD Board for this project. The PMT will provide the necessary inputs and assistance to Castalia while MIWD management team and the Board of Directors will provide the appropriate guidance to the project.

Much to the confusion of everybody, the Castalia project is not a preparation for MIWD’s privatization. It will however, present different models of private-sector participation, as well as improvements within the existing public management model. Furthermore, it is not going to undertake actual changes in the technical operations and in the management of MIWD, nor is it going to provide World Bank loan to the district, but rather it will help the Board and management to make the most appropriate decisions which will be used on selecting possible funding mechanisms to implement the decisions chosen.

TOP

Construction of gabion wall completed

The Metro Iloilo Water District recently completed the construction of a gabion wall in Maasin in order to address the problem on siltation that perennially affects the water supply in MIWD franchise area, especially during the rainy season.

The structure installed at the MIWD dam, in Barangay Daja, Maasin, will serve as a replacement for the pre-setting facility that was destroyed during the June 21, 2008 typhoon.

Jerry Guillergan of the Engineering Department confirmed that the construction of the facility is finally completed and is fully operational this March. The project started on December 28, 2008 with TRPL Construction as its contractor and had a cost of P2.5million.
The gabion wall is located 15-20 meters upstream of the intake dam. It is composed of gabion boxes with the dimension of 1x1x2meters which will be filled with boulders ranging from 0.2 -0.3 meters in diameter.

The boxes were aligned 20 degrees off the horizontal of the river cross distance to minimize the impact of water coming from the river.

On the other hand, the wall, to be arranged in a pyramid-like pattern for stability, occupied approximately one-half (1/2) of the river width where the original islet used to be before it was completely destroyed. Raw water coming from the river going to the intake structure of the dam used to have a natural pre-setting area immediately after a natural islet formed about 15-20 meters upstream of the intake. The structure serves to filter the sand and silts before water goes into the raw pipes.

With the destruction of the islet that serves as baffle wall to protect the intake structure and the occurrence of heavy siltation especially when it rains, which is further aggravated by soil erosion in the uplands after the typhoon, the pipe intake at the dam becomes easily clogged up. This prompted MIWD to close the dam intake to give way to the cleaning of structure thereby causing water interruptions.

TOP

In its desire to recognize and harness the artistic talents of its employees, the Board of Directors has approved the formation of a cultural group. Known as MIWD Tuburan Cultural Group,the group aims to contribute in the promotion and preservation of Ilonggo culture through dance, music and other art forms. The cultural group also intends to provide a venue for the various artistic talents of MIWD employees thereby developing their self-confidence and balanced personality. Trained under the tutelage of Annie Divinagracia-Sartorio, one of the leading dance authorities in Iloilo today and former principal dancer of the world class Ballet Philippines, the Tuburan Cultural Group made its debut performance during the 30th MIWD anniversary celebration.

It showcased a 30-minute presentation billed as “Bayle Sa Ambahanong Ilonggo” featuring the members dancing to Ilonggo ditties such as “Iloilo Ang Banwa Ko”, “Dandansoy”, “Ang Gugma Sang Mga Tigulang”, "Lumalabay nga daw aso", “Turagsoy”, “Hele Hele Tulog Anay” and the famous “Dinagyang”. The group had the opportunity, too, to perform in the opening ceremonies of the 2008 convention of the Philippine Waterworks Association (PWWA) in Boracay, Aklan.
Francis Gerard Habana, Officer In-Charge of the Administrative and General Services Division who is at the same time the over-all in-charge of the cultural group, said the Tuburan Cultural Group members may serve, too, as ambassadors of goodwill of MIWD and may be invited to perform outside of MIWD and in other events.
According to him plans to venture into choral concert, zarzuela and visual arts exhibit are also in the offing.?

TOP