The seemingly never coming waters of Boasaw
>> Sunday, November 9, 2014
HAPPY WEEKEND
By Gina Dizon
SAGADA, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE - Since 2011 when the
PhP36 million Boasaw water fund has been bidded and awarded by the
Municipal government of Sagada to Cotabato -based FFJJ construction with a 320
day contract period, water has not yet reached the Poblacion area where it is
intended to reach. That means 700 days
has passed the duration
of the contract period and the project is still
97% finished.
Water to first recipients of the
water project has not been coming to the
eastern barangays anymore since July
this year, residents say. The water connection here has been installed March this year with eastern
villagers enjoying the Boasaw
waters as early as April of 2014 and the Mayor of the town as the first
recipient of the waterworks project February this year. Must be that water has decreased.
So I came to know from a Tanulong resident and barangay
official who said water to their rice
fields have decreased. Since irrigation is the major intention of the P36 million fund, a big bulk of the Boasaw waters go to the rice fields of Tanulong
in this project called Buasao
irrigation system and construction
of Tanulong tribe irrigators association water services .
The volume of water has slowed down seemingly along with climate
change and looking up at the P36 million water fund seemingly has no answer to the water problem of water- needy tourist town of Sagada.
The
Memorandum of Agreement
among leaders and elders of
Tanulong and Mayor Eduardo Latawan inked three years ago identified a 6 inch opening to be connected from
upstream waters leading to the
ricefields of Tanulong and excess waters
with only one hour flow
every three days of the week for domestic waters of Poblacion
Sagada. Excess waters emphasized.
Said MOA was
witnessed by four elders from
Madongo and Tanulong, 12 kagawad of Tanulong
and Madongo, secretaries and SK chairmen of both barangays and Sagada Mayor Latawan.
But the Tanulong elder said the agreement was not followed
with only a four inch pipe in diameter reaching their ricefields. And so the
reason why waters to their ricefields is ‘kurang’ as in less than what should
be, the Tanulong elder said.
As it is, a four inch pipe in diameter goes
to the irrigation canal of Tanulong and
a 2 inch pipe going to the eastern
villages from the tank in Palidan, Bangaan. A strict agreement only allowed a six inch pipe in diameter to
be connected from the main source with
adjoining Agawa watching.
A tank has already been built
in Antadao to serve the
eastern areas. A tank is
being built now for Patay Poblacion
and a tank already built in Bitin, Ambasing.
The controversial tank atop
Mobtoc Hill built on a site where it
was not intended to be remains in a quandary of how it shall be dealt with.
Understandably the tank at Mobtoc is going to
service Demang and the adjoining
households. Demang not being a direct beneficiary of CHARMP is considered not
to be a direct recipient of the Boasaw waters and so with adjacent Dagdag.
And so following this argument, the first to
be serviced at eastern Sagada should
be Tetep-an because Tetep-an Norte and Tetep-an Sur are CHARMP
beneficiaries. But it is not the case because Antadao locating the house of Latawan is first
serviced . CHARMP has to explain the confusion.
Anyway, pipes have been laid out and seemingly
are useless without water to pass through. The water supposedly to go to eastern areas the past four months dont’ see water now
gushing forth since August this year. And this is October when the rains are still coming.
Will there be water that will come forth to Patay Poblacion down to Ambasing with this
decreased water supply from Boasaw.
There is a need as has been emphasized during
the watershed summit of May 2011 held in Sagada to set up
centralized tanks that will contain
water from various sources reaching households and commercial establishments and not necessarily rely on the water coming from Boasaw.
***
There are currently 28 water sources for
Patay- Tanap, Pitak Baka, Danonoy-Mission, Namsong, Lasig, Pilaw;Demang
– Todey, Luwagan, Kalimagong; Dagdag-
Pannan, Pukan and other shared
sources servicing Patay;
Ambasing-Kengangud, Matikem, Bitin, Kengakak. South central with 6 water sources – Inuman,
Andepyas; eastern Sagada with 27
sources- Ampo, Owikan, Mabanway, Kayapong,
Ububan, among others;and southern Sagada with 12 sources- Pungas, Todey, Lamagan, and
water-rich northern with 23 sources with its many sources including Boasaw.
Households currently have a system with neighbours and relatives sharing
in one water spring. Here in Dagdag for one, a
spring services 12 households who
have alternate schedules of two hours each. Other neighbours and
relatives do the same in other water sources. Sometimes excess water gushes forth from the
tanks and spills on the ground.
Other
suggestions talk of already
established water sources to stay as is, and
other water sources from
government funded water projects to be
pooled in clustered areas.
And so in lower Patay are several households
sharing water sourced from Tanap while water at
a tourist
homestay is abundantly pouring forth making some disgruntled residents of Lower Patay pour forth nasty comments in a local paper referring to the 5 million peso water project.
This P5 million water partaken by a few individuals including inns continuously raise questions of how public funds meant for the public good has landed for the
consumption of only a few individuals of
water-needy Sagada Poblacion.
Said P5 million fund was then given as a grant from
public funds when the town was then declared as a Special Development Area
following the declaration of Sagada as a peace zone in 1990.
***
Back to the stalled Boasaw waterworks. It is now October of 2014
and the waters of Boasaw are still as hesitant to reach the intended beneficiaries of Poblacion Sagada. The feasibility study sent
to CHARMP listed 15 barangays of Sagada
with the exception of four southern barangays
and so CHARMP allotted P18 million to match the P18 million sourced from Senator Teofisto Guingona.
It’s now
nearing elections 2016 and
Guingona has nothing to be proud of with not even a drop having reached Poblacion .
Following
implementation of the project contract
with FFJJ Construction on February 2012 reached snags with questions from the Sangguniang Bayan why
the project design does not reach intended Poblacion areas and only reach Kapinitan some two kilometers away from the main town
including other issues to redesign the
project instead.
Following the consultation, Mayor Latawan said
other funds amounting to 2 million pesos
shall be sourced from the Bottoms Up
Planning program from the National
Alleviation Poverty Commission (NAPC)
funds to expense pipes
and reach intended beneficiaries Poblacion Patay, Ambasing and the eastern barangays.
In response to the technical questions posed by the
SB in 2012, a request for extension of the project reached CHARMP which
initiated project implementation August
of 2012.
The technical delay of project implementation included gaps on conducting consultation with neighboring villages who have a stake on the
Boasaw waters particularly Tubo, Abra. And so it was on September 2013 that a consultation conducted by CHARMP
invited representatives from NCIP and from
concerned representatives
from adjoining Boasaw
areas- Sagada, Besao and Abra to thresh out the problem of Tubo who forwarded that
consultation was not done by Sagada
before it constructed its water tunnel at the questioned
Boasaw site.
It was learned that a councilor
from Tubo visited Latawan in Sagada obviously to talk about the problem
with the understanding that Latawan
shall visit officials in Tubo. Latawan however did not go to Tubo as promised till the issue was
brought to the wider regional level for
a simple question of consultation or FPIC that
should have been resolved
the earliest time possible. Construction was again stalled due to the
issues raised by Tubo.
This, and other issues on the implementation of the waterworks project
including water tapping by the Mayor, the slow building of tanks including
the illegal building of a tank at Mobtoc supposedly to reach households at
Demang and adjoining households. And the rest is history with Boasaw waters
whatever.
