Boasaw waters distribution, illegal tapping questioned

HAPPY WEEKEND

By Gina Dizon

SAGADA, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE – Questions on water distribution capped major discussions during the  water consultation held February 21 here at the municipal hall as Poblacion participants to the gathering  questioned two illegal connections, one directly  going to the house of Sagada Mayor  Eduardo Latawan, tapped from the main pipeline going to the eastern barangays of Kilong, Antadao and Tetep-an.

The Boasaw waters made available from the project, Improvement of  Buasao  Irrigation System and Construction of  Tanulong Tribe Irrigators Association Water Services  already  reached the eastern barangays  early this year. The other intended barangay beneficiaries of  water-needy Poblacion and southern barangays await servicing of  the coveted Boasaw waters.

Said project bidded December of 2011 and implemented February  of 2012 is  still undergoing  works. The 320-day project is already 320 days delayed more than the number of days programmed  for the project  with pipes still not laid out to south central and central barangays andwater tanks not yet constructed  as of presstime, even as illegal tapping has already been committed.    

During said consultation which also jibed with the holding of the Kiltepan rally against sacred land privatization, disturbing the discussions of a municipal  water project, a major call was the formation of  barangay water management  associations to determine their respective policies on water distribution and maintenance. Succeeding zonal water consultations and trainings for barangay management officers  are scheduled on March 4, 5, 6 and 7 and presentation and finalization of plans on March 11 as programmed by the CHARMP with the LGU. 

Barangay  beneficiaries of the Boasaw waterworks became a picky subject where direct beneficiaries  are Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project  (CHARMP) areas namely Patay, Ambasing, Tetep-an Norte, Tetep-an Sur, Tanulong, Madongo and Fidelisan and indirect beneciaries are the other barangays of Sagada except barangays of  the southern zone.

There are 15 barangays cited in the feasibility study of the project  forwarded and the Sagada LGU proposal accepted by CHARMP  funding 18 million of the project adding to the 18 million peso  Priority Development Assistance Funds  of Senator Teofisto Guingona 111.

Guingona surely must have meant that his PDAF assistance shall serve Sagada’s water needs  in general and not picking on two or three barangays.

Now the distribution. How is the question which  depends now on the  barangays to determine  how the Boasaw water shall reach their households  much as the CHARMP project only  identifies Level 2 with clustered homes benefitting a water stand. Nevertheless, respective  barangay water management systems shall serve to provide guidelines on how they shall manage their water systems, regardless of whether their water supply comes from Boasaw or not.

Currently, there are a number of  water sources from private springs servicing clustered homes apart from the Mission water and a few households benefitting from the  P5 million water then sourced in the early 1990s from Sagada being a Special  Development Zone  considering the municipality as a peace zone.  

While this is so, the rest of the Boasaw domestic water benefitting barangay- households  from the irrigation project are dependent on what the northern tribes shall say.

Based on an earlier memorandum  of agreement among  members of the eastern barangays made known to municipal mayor Eduardo Latawan, the  installation of a water meter is imposed in every distribution tank and that water fees shall be collected through automatic deduction from the Internal Revenue Allotment of each barangay of Sagada availing of the Boasaw water.

Water fees were identified to be on a “fair cost or just enough” to pay salaries of four maintenance men. Said memorandum identified the Tanulong Tribe Irrigators Association to manage the supposed domestic water system.

Said MOA  identified a 5-inch opening to be connected from upstream waters of Boasaw with waters leading to the ricefields in barangay Tanulong and excess waters to domestic consumption; that waters shall be directed to a domestic water system when rice fields don’t need irrigation; and that all waters to be diverted to the 5 inch opening going to Tanulong’s irrigation should there be lack of water, with only one hour flow every three days of the week for domestic waters .

In an earlier conversation with Aclopen, he clarified that a pipe 6 inches in diameter shall be connected upstream Boasaw dam with a 5 inch opening going to Tanulong ricefields and 1 inch for domestic waters. It shall be recalled that an earlier agreement between Besao and Tanulong identified a 6 inch diameter pipe to be connected in the Boasaw dam for Tanulong water purposes.

Anyways, while awaiting the consultations come March 4,5,6 and 11 the fate of  the two illegal connections are awaited on what concerned bodies shall do. Otherwise, continuing to draw water from an illegal line presents a bad precedent and shows an equally bad if not worst local governance.