Leyte guv appeals for LMWD expansion project

By Provincial Media Relations Center
July 25, 2012

TACLOBAN CITY  –  Leyte Gov. Carlos Jericho Petilla calls for a fruition to the pipeline expansion project of the Leyte Metropolitan Water District to provide efficient and continuous water supply to consumers in the city area.

This the governor called after the project’s entry into the city area of the project’s pipe installation faced yet another stall, despite efforts made by the LMWD, city councilors and other government agency.

Gov. Petilla said the water consuming public have to understand that the present pipes and the water system as a whole that provide service to LMWD consumers in the city area, were designed in the 70’s for consumers of 5,000 families.

“Just imagine that. These pipes are now serving more or less 30,000 families, which is way above its original number it is supposed to sufficiently serve. It would not take a genius to put two and two together, and figure out that these pipes cannot anymore work for these number of consumers. They need to be replaced,” Gov. Petilla said in an interview.

He likewise assured that the problem is not that there is lack of water supply, rather, the ‘pipes are just too small to carry out the volume of water that would sufficiently supply the increasing number of consumers.’

The governor called on the consumers in Tacloban and other people concerned to give way to this expansion project as it is one which is designed to answer the water problems of the city. The more or less 34 kilometers pipe that run from Tingib in Pastrana to the city proper would solely benefit the city water consumers.

“This is exclusively for them so I really do not see the reason why they are delaying the project,” Gov. Petilla said,

Meanwhile, he mentioned the project to have been waiting in the offing, following an assurance before by the city government of Tacloban, at the height of the highly urbanized city (HUC) campaign in 2007, that they would soon provide a water system for the people of Tacloban.

However, five years after the “promise of a new water system turned out to be just a study”, thus, LMWD’s expansion project is now pushing through, says the governor.