MONKAYO, Compostela Valley — The municipal government of Monkayo in Compostela Valley is set to grant a 25-year franchise to a private water company for a PHP625- million municipal water system.
“We will be investing a total of PHP625 million, and for the first year P100 million to build a water treatment plant,” said Federico Noe Goco, program manager of the Udenna Water Integrated Services, Inc.
A resolution was already submitted by the Sangguniang Bayan for the public hearing, seeing the importance of the project to address lack of water supply services in the municipality.
The town’s waterworks system is operated by the local government unit and it has been encountering difficulties of improving the system to cope with increasing population.
The government also lacks technical expertise and financial resources to rehabilitate and expand the existing water system.
Mayor Ramil Gentugaya acknowledged the need for a technical expert to improve the water system starting from the source in Buay River in the mountain of Barangay Salvacion to household connections.
He said part of the agreement would be for Udenna to assume the P23 million balance of the P45-million loan contracted earlier by the previous municipal administration.
The loan from Land Bank was sought to rehabilitate the waterworks system.
The mayor is presently rehabilitating the system’s pipe connections from Buay source after these were destroyed by recent typhoons.
He said Udenna is one of the biggest and expert water companies in the country, adding that the firm has pledged to make their Monkayo project “a benchmark” for their next projects in various sites nationwide.
Goco said that based on Udenna’s financial projections, the average tariff collection would amount to PHP19.59 per cubic- from the existing average of PHP13 plus per cubic with minimum charge of PHP166.50 for residential users and PHP331 for commercial users.
“We want to be always transparent, there’s an increase because we will invest, we will put up a filtration plant, we will increase the service coverage, we will upgrade the pipelines and do many others,” he said.
In exchange for the franchise, the grantee will pay a franchise fee of two percent (2%) based on gross sales after the value added tax and after a grace period of three years from the start date of the operations.
Under the proposed ordinance, the take-over of the existing water system shall commence within five months from the date of approval or upon the agreement between the municipal government and the grantee.
Goco estimated that if the approval is made this quarter, Udenna could operate with already the treatment plant “by May next year.” (Cha Monforte/PNA)
