War over potable water looms in Davao

The people of Davao were recently gripped by great anticipation— or apprehension— on who will emerge winner in the battle of two giants over potable water, a natural resource that Davao City is known for having one of the best in the world.
For the Davao City Water District (DCWD), the future of the city’s water supply depends on the Tamugan-Panigan rivers, an alternative to the supply of potable water extracted from the Talomo-Lipadas Watershed now reaching the homes of 750,000 people or around 156,000 households.
The Tamugan-Panigan River is expected to produce about 200,000 cubic meter daily to service an additional 30,000 households in 25 villages of the second district. This could mean that current consumers will have better quality of service.
DCWD officials assert that the river “is the only alternative water source that has the required quality, quantity and viability for the city’s long-term water supply development plan.”
The same water source is also being considered by Hedcor, the country’s leading developer of run-of-water hydropower and an affiliate of the Aboitiz Group, as the site of a P6-billion hydroelectric project expected to generate 34 megawatts of electricity.
That output is enough to help avert the looming power crisis in Mindanao which is expected to hit its critical period in 2009.
Attractive project
Hedcor’s presentation paper is attractive. It is peppered with benefits amounting to millions of pesos not only for the national and local governments but also waiting for the local communities to be “hit” by the project.
The company intends to distribute electricity starting 2010.
It will be paying the eight communities that will host the project—Wines, Tawan-Tawan, Suawan, Tambobong, Salaysay, Carmen, Cadalian and Tamayong—about P2 million to P3 million as sharing benefit, with P0.01 per kilowatt-hour every year from the first year of operation. Its four indigenous communities will be given P3 million as shares annually, apart from the land rentals expected to reach P1.8 million.
Davao City will also get P5.4 million or 2 percent of the gross sales during the first year. Hedcor will also pay about P40 million in property tax and P3 million in business tax.
The project will improve access roads and open new ones, and provide irrigation water, watershed management and barangay electrification.
Memo of agreement
In January, Hedcor executives headed by Rene Ronquillo, president and chief operations officer, signed a memorandum of agreement with leaders of the host communities and the indigenous communities for the three run-of-river hydroelectric project.
Ronquillo said the company had started building a good relationship with the people in the eight villages in 2006, no wonder many of the village leaders favored its project over that of the DCWD.
Datu Pedro Lagao, chief of the tribal group in Tambobong, said their approval to Hedcor’s project was based on the promised development and jobs. The project will create about 900 jobs, mostly for the local residents, Ronquillo said.
But, according to the DCWD, the presence of Hedcor will “seriously threaten the city’s water supply … The hydropower plant will compromise the DCWD’s mandate to provide the most basic need of the populace—water.”
The proposed hydropower plant of Hedcor will be built upstream of the infiltration gallery of the DCWD, or the upper portion of the Tamugan-Panigan River.
Fears of drying up
The water district said Hedcor’s project could not coexist with that of the DCWD based on their original plans because the setup would dry up portions of the river vital to the volume needed by the DCWD’s concessionaires.
Hedcor originally proposed to put up its plant above the infiltration gallery, at the junction of the two rivers at the lower portion of Barangay Tawan-Tawan. This would dry up a long stretch of 10.439 kilometers from the infiltration gallery to Hedcor’s hydroplant because the power firm will be diverting the flow of water to course through its weirs (dams).
Hedcor will put up weirs from the upper reaches of the Tamugan and Panigan rivers, which will meet at a conveyance box junction at 530 meters above sea level, or 130 meters higher than the infiltration gallery of the DCWD. From that point, a single weir of more than 2 km will be built to end at a Hedcor pondage, which is connected by another 4.6-km weir leading to the Hedcor power house and switch.
“This setup will dry up vital portions of these rivers, which will lead to both immediate and long-term adverse effects on our project,” a DCWD paper said.
Rodora Gamboa, general manager of DCWD, said the plan of Hedcor might seriously deplete water supply in the area, affecting the public access to potable water. She said the city’s future water source would be compromised.
Water permit, but no ECC
She criticized the granting of a water permit for the Tamugan-Panigan rivers to the hydroelectric firm by the National Water Resources Board (NWRB). The permit, however, is pending after the DCWD raised a protest. The Environmental Management Bureau has refused to give the power firm an environmental compliance certificate (ECC). Ronquillo, of course, was not happy. He said the permit is the only a ticket for them to get started.
“We don’t understand it. The policy is clear. We cannot get a water permit if we cannot get the ECC, but the EMB is saying that we must get the water permit first before they issue the ECC. It’s really confusing us. You see, if we can’t get the permit, we cannot build the plant,” Ronquillo said.
EMB regional director Metudio Turbella, in letter to Ronquillo said the issue of water rights must be settled first by the NWRB. “It pertains to the use of surface waters of Panigan-Tamugan Rivers. The same surface water is also the lifeline of the proposed hydropower project of Hedcor. Clearly, under the principle of primary jurisdiction, the NWRB is the proper agency to rule on the issue of water rights,” he said.
Eleseo Braganza, executive director of the DCWD, said the two rivers would certainly solve the water supply problem of Davao but not the imminent power crisis.
“The problem of Davao City is not only the delivery of water to the homes of the people but also the supply of the water that must be delivered to the people. The water here is not the solution to the power crisis but it will solve the water crisis,” Braganza said.
Groundwater source
Right now, over 99 percent of the water consumed by the city comes from groundwater extracted from the Talomo-Lipadas Watershed. With a daily extraction of 212,000 cubic meters from 50 production wells, sustainability is in danger.