It is a given fact that water and electricity are impotant commodities in our lives. The government delegates the provision and delivery of these services to utilities
The Sorsogon City Water District (SCWD), a Government-Owned and Controlled Corporation (GOCC) is given that franchise to deliver water to households and establishments in the City of Sorsogon. The government mandates that the water should be substantial in quantity and the quality should be compliant to the Philippine National Standard for Drinking Water (PNSD.
The SCWD has been consistent in finding ways and means to deliver a decent public service and comply with the requirements of the government. For the last two years/ an unprecedented increas of satisfaction rating was recorde. Quality of water is getting near and nearer to the standards set by the government, However, as we perform our duties and obligations towards the fulfillment of the government's directives there are challenges and variable that are not yet within our full control. One of them is electricity.
Unknown to many, our water sources/ mostly pumping stations, require substantial power at 440 volts. Regular households only require 220 volts. The frequent occurrence of a low-voltage (below 440 V) supplied by our electric cooperative, not to mention the regular brownouts, simply affects our water supply. While it is true that our partners, Primewater Infrastrucure Corp. (PWIC) and Abejo Waters Corp (AWC), already equiped our sources with back-up power supply, power interuptions still have an enormous effect on our operation.
During brownouts and low-voltage scenarios, PWIC's and AWC's pump operators need to switch from regular to back-up power (genset).
To restore water supply using genset requires an average time of 30 minutes. This gap is causing the preassure build-up using genset will again require some time depending on the demands of consumers. Hence, areas in higher elevation will eperience hours of no water.
To blame anybody is not the intent of this paper. For sure, power utilities are on this issue and are also moving heaven and earth to solve the problem. We are only explaining our present predecaments and hopefully be understood by our concessionaires.
Considering that we posted a satisfaction rating of 70% for the last wuarter of 2021, we are very thankful that our concessionaires find meaning and appreciate modest improvements instituted for the last 2 years. It is good to note that the new Board of Directors and Management leadership started at 34% satisfaction rating in 2020. Rest assured that will continously and relentlessly exert maximum efforts to cover and satisfy the reamaining underserved concessionaires.