A Gift of Water, a Gift of Life
By: Joan P. Camano
Merely three days after celebrating Christmas, the Metro Kidapawan Water District has granted a priceless gift to one of the barangays of Kidapawan City, the gift of water. This is one of the mandates of the Local Water Districts to extend their water supply to waterless barangays.
The Blessing and Inauguration of the Distribution Line Project of Brgy. Macebolig spearheaded by the Engineering and Operations Department of MKWD was held today, December 28, 2015.
Brgy. Macebolig has been extended with a Distribution Line with the length of 3,060 linear meters or 3.06 kilometers 50mmuPVC pipe directly connected from the distribution lines coming from one of the water sources of MKWD at Lapaan, Perez, Kidapawan City. The project amounted to Php 1,664,645.72 with the funds coming from the Corporate Operating Budget of the District.
The abovementioned activity was attended by MKWD Board of Directors Alan G. Pandio and Dr. Alfredo S. Villarico, General Manager Stella M. Gonzales, AGM Wilesper Lisandro M. Alqueza, MKWD Managers and staff, Reverend Mervin T. Tahad, Barangay Officials and constituents of Barangay Macebolig.
The program started with an invocation and the singing of the national anthem followed by the overview of the project by Engr. Wilesper Lisandro M. Alqueza, AGM for Operations of MKWD. He mentioned that the number of connections that can be served by the distribution lines is only up to 60 to 70 households while the needed connection lines to achieve a breakeven between cost and benefit needs to be 180 households. However, as stated earlier that it is one of the mandate of Local Water Districts, the Management has been happy to extend their services to Brgy. Macebolig. After the overview was the welcome remark of the General Manager of MKWD, Stella M. Gonzales, who cited the importance of maintaining the Watershed, gathering enough funding for the extension of services and upgrading the service of water supply distribution to barangays in the next three to five years. She also has announced good news to the first 30 constituents of Brgy. Macebolig, they will be exempted from paying the application fee so that they can purchase materials needed connect their houses in the Distribution Line. The barangay chairperson then, Mr, Daniel B. Paman heartily and gratefully accepted the project of MKWD because this was one of his envisioned projects since. In closing, Dr. Alfredo S. Villarico stated that with cooperation nothing is impossible and in addition urged the constituents of Brgy. Macebolig to take responsibility in taking care of the water supply distributed to their barangay by reporting leakages and other concerns.
The second part of the activity was the Blessing officiated by Father Melvin T. Tahad, DCK and the cutting of ribbon by the General Manager and Barangay Chairperson with the assistance of MKWD Board of Directors.
The smiles and happiness of the people of Brgy. Macebolig cannot be contained when they saw the fresh and clean water pouring out from the distribution line. Now, they can experience the fresh and potable water coming from Mt. Apo distributed by MKWD. This, was indeed, the season to be jolly.