ILIGAN City ― The city is going to hold a two-day “water dialogue.”
Bobby Nanaman, chair of the Technical Working Group of the said activity, yesterday, told reporters that this will be on August 26 and 27, Friday and Saturday of this week at the “Convention Room” of the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology.
Experts on the matter will be giving presentations about water on the morning of the first day, and on the afternoon of the said day, there will be some workshops regarding the matter of water and how to improve the system.
He added they have invited experts outside this city, from Manila, from Cagayan de Oro, MSU-IIT, and of course, the Iligan City Water Works System which is chaired by Engr. Josephus Albao.
Originally dubbed “Water Summit” and scheduled sometime in July, it was renamed “Water Dialogue” as the name seemed more appropriate, Nanaman said.
The second day would be planning sessions, he added. which will comprise strategizing and planning as to how to go about the present water situation here and its concerns.
It was learned that out of the 44 barangays of the city, only 31 are being served by the present water system and those who are not served are the upland barangays like Palao at 542 area and the hinterland barangays like Digkilaan, Bonbonon, Mandulog, Hindang, etc.
There are those who are “overserved” too even as there are “underserved” barangays. It was also learned that out of the 100% of those served, 58% were really not utilized due to wastage like leakages and other factors.
Sectors from the household, enterprises and industries are hoped to be able to attend this activity, Nanaman said.
Expected attendees are around 90, he said with Vice Mayor Marianito Alemania, City Councilor Engr. Samuel Huertas, who is the chair of the Committee on Water of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, he added.
Among the concerns that are hoped to be addressed in this two-day activity is the matter of “security.”
This city is known as the “city of waterfalls” with the free-flowing waters at Timoga, at Barangay Buruun, a tourist attraction and people from far and near come to the area to enjoy the freshness and the waterfalls there.
Much of the water ends up just being |wasted| and just flowing to the sea, Nanaman said.
Nanaman said the office of the city administrator is now being “professionalized” and there are several divisions on them and he heads the “policy development” of the mini division of the city administrator office.
The city administrator, to note, under the administration of Mayor Frederick Siao, is Dr. Darwin Manubag, an alumnus of MSU-IIT.
