35,000 Cebuanos no longer have to pay water bill

Some 35,000 Cebu City residents who consume 10 cubic meters of water and below will no longer have to pay their monthly water bills, Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) chair Jose Daluz III said on Saturday, July 3.

“Just imagine 35,000 people going to MCWD collection centers every month to pay but now no more because we will only have one customer: Cebu City,” Daluz told Rappler in a phone interview on Saturday.

The subsidy program, which will start in July, will fully cover Cebu City households that have a water consumption of not more than 10 cubic meters.

This includes the basic water charge of P180 and other fees such as tax and purchased water adjustments.

Meanwhile, those who consume 11 to 30 cubic meters of water will only be covered for fees excluding the basic water charge.

On June 23, the MCWD board passed a resolution establishing a Water Subsidy Program in agreement with the Cebu City government.

Under the resolution, the city government would pay MCWD P200 million yearly for residents to be covered in the program and for MCWD to renovate existing surface water sources in the city.

By that time, Daluz said that Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella had given his thumbs up to the program and promised that the city government would allocate P200 million in the 2022 budget.

Daluz explained that on a yearly basis, some 35,000 Cebu City residents with water consumption of 10 cubic meters and below pay MCWD approximately P70 million for basic water charges and another P70 million for other fees.

With P200 million, MCWD plans to use P140 million to subsidize the qualified residents, and the remaining P60 million to waive some fees (excluding basic water charge) for residents with 11 to 30 cubic meter water consumption.

Even if the city is yet to pay the P200 million, MCWD already started granting the subsidies in July to help families with backlogs in payments due to the pandemic.

“Among gihangyo nga karong tuiga, from July to December, ug mahimo, ila nani icover sa Cebu City. Nangayo mi og P72 million (We asked that for this year, from July to December, if possible, Cebu City will cover. We asked for P72 million),” he said.

“I know nga naa tay P100 million nga libre diha nga naa sa office of the mayor and the mayor already agreed nga kanang P100 million for economic stimulus maoy gamiton,” he added.

(I know that we have P100 million that’s free in the office of the mayor and the mayor already agreed that the P100 million for economic stimulus will be used.)

As of posting time, Labella expressed his gratitude for the water subsidy program and hoped that th city councilors would approve the P200 million payment under the 2022 annual budget. – Rappler.com