One Heart, One Mind for Cagayan de Oro´s Water Future

Now that Cagayan de Oro has one leg up on the competition as the lynchpin for the Philippines fastest growing economy, it behooves regional planners and stakeholders to come together as one mind and one body to plan for its sustainable future.

No doubt, Cagayan de Oro´s water system plays a key part in sustaining its growth as Northern Mindanao´s regional capital. Although recent studies indicate ground water mining (meaning withdrawals are exceeding deposits), still residents are lucky some far sighted city fathers led by former Cagayan de Oro City Water District General Manager Ernie San Juan foresaw the need for the COWD to diversify its water sources. Someday we should recognize him for his foresight, which played a key role in bringing Cagayan de Oro and Region 10 where it is now.

Hence, the presence of the country´s first privately owned bulk water system which can supply almost all of the city´s present potable water needs should the need arise to suspend operations of COWD´s 28 artesian wells to give our battered aquifers a chance to recharge themselves. This resource could then be our strategic reserve should a calamity similar to the January floods and the ones now battering Manila and Luzon strike us.

Still, a sustainable water future doesn´t only involve getting water from its source and bringing it safe and ready to drink to our individual households and offices. There´s the urgent need to protect and rehabilitate the watershed which is the source of the city´s surface and groundwater. Since the Cagayan River watershed transcends the boundaries of Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro, there´s also the need to have a singular body acting as one to do that, as proposed by the Cagayan de Oro River Basin Authority bill, with stakeholders from both areas as members.

There´s also a need to update and maintain data gathering activities which would monitor the status of the city´s ground and surface water resources, most of which at this point, is already 13 years old. The Ateneo de Manila University Economics Department should be lauded for taking initiatives towards this end. However, we cannot afford to depend on outside agencies to keep providing this key planning input for us. Perhaps the proposed River Basin Authority can take the lead in institutionalizing this mechanism to ensure our key planners and stakeholders have updated, relevant and usable data which they can count on to give them the real picture and enable them to act accordingly.

There´s also the need to put together an infrastructure framework plan which would integrate the various local government units´ policies regarding water into a cohesive whole with reference to the Cagayan River. The ideal body for this would be the Regional Development Council´s Infrastructure Committee.

On a more local scale, we´ve depended on the COWD so far to project and provide for our water requirements all these years. We know the COWD staff is technically capable to continue doing this, but it would be in the interest of the city and all regional stakeholders in communities to participate in the consultation and drawing up of an updated water plan. Besides the usual government bureaucrats in national line agencies and LGUs, this process should also include bulk water users like malls and industrial parks, residential subdivisions, small and medium industries as well as non-government organizations like the Kagay-an Watershed Alliance (Kawal) and the group of Dr. Boy Mercado working for the ´cooperativization´ of the COWD.

Perhaps the best way to set an agenda and bring together all these stakeholders is to push through with the Cagayan de Oro Water Summit as earlier proposed by the Oro Chamber for November 15 last year. Originally conceived as a venue to bring the COWD and bulk water supplier Rio Verde Water Consortium to sit down and address all issue with the participation of all stakeholders, it can instead be redirected to set down an agenda for a long-term water plan for the city and choose participants who will be asked to join the summit.

The time for such as summit is now. We´ve had two warnings with the January floods and now the devastation in Metro Manila and Luzon to consider our water future. A third strike and we´re out.