With thousands of Cebu City residents still queueing for water more than 30 days after Typhoon Tino, a city councilor has called for a full investigation into what he described as unacceptable delays and governance lapses inside the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD).
Councilor Harold Go, in a privilege speech delivered during this week’s regular session of the City Council, said many households in the city’s north district and several other barangays continue to suffer from irregular or zero water supply despite repeated assurances from MCWD and its private contractors.
“Tubig ni. Dili ni optional service. Water is a basic necessity and a basic right,” Go said.
Go said the water crisis began when Typhoon Tino damaged MCWD’s main lines on November 4, 2025, leaving entire sitios without supply for days.
More than a month later, he said numerous communities still rely on rationing, tanker deliveries, and private donors just to bathe, wash dishes, clean their homes, and cook meals.
He described residents lining up under the heat of the sun or late at night to fill buckets and containers.
Many families, he added, have been unable to clean the mud that entered their homes during the storm.
Although MCWD acknowledged submerged booster pumps, broken pipelines, and delays in sourcing spare parts, Go said the actual restoration work has remained slow and inconsistent.
He noted that some contractors admitted they lacked manpower and were unable to conduct simultaneous repair operations despite the urgency of the situation.
Go warned that deeper systemic issues within the agency have made the crisis worse.
He said MCWD currently does not have a functioning Board of Directors because it lacks the minimum number of members required to approve contracts, authorize emergency actions, or issue official resolutions.
This absence of quorum, he said, raises serious questions about how critical decisions were made over the past month.
He also flagged MCWD’s lack of an approved safety plan for the last three years, a gap that, he said, undermines the water district’s readiness for major disasters and service interruptions.
“These issues raise urgent questions of compliance, accountability, and preparedness,” Go said.
He added that many residents are asking why repairs were not conducted round-the-clock, why a single pump failure affected tens of thousands of customers, why restoration timelines were unclear for weeks, and how service prioritization was determined.
He said communities in upland areas appear to have been unintentionally deprioritized, worsening an already difficult situation for families living far from tanker routes.
Go stressed that the crisis is no longer just a matter of damaged infrastructure but a humanitarian issue affecting daily life in Cebu City.
“This is about children going to school without bathing. Elderly persons carrying pails upstairs. Mothers unable to clean post-flood mud. Families forced to buy overpriced water just to survive,” he said. “Public health is at risk. Dignity is at risk. Trust in government is at risk.”
Go said his office has been assisting affected barangays by coordinating tanker deployments, conducting site inspections, and helping source needed parts, including the air shipment of electrical contact grease from Luzon to restart critical equipment.
Despite these efforts, he said thousands of residents continue to suffer.
He urged the Council to call for an executive session with MCWD, the Local Water Utilities Administration, Watermatic, JE Hydro, DENR, and CCENRO to clarify timelines, technical issues, and restoration plans.
He also asked MCWD to submit complete repair logs, site assessments, deployment records, and a detailed roadmap for full service restoration.
He sought a review of all contracts and emergency response obligations tied to MCWD’s water treatment and distribution system and asked that the water district be required to issue daily public updates on repair progress and affected areas.
Go further proposed that the city reassess its entire water security framework, including sources, redundancy measures, watershed protection, and infrastructure resilience.
He said copies of his privilege speech should be furnished to Mayor Nestor Archival and the Local Water Utilities Administration to ensure coordinated action.
Go concluded his speech by saying that while Cebuanos can accept typhoons and damaged pipelines as part of life in a disaster-prone country, they should not be expected to tolerate confusion, delays, and a lack of transparency from public utilities.
“Our people can accept typhoons. They can accept broken pipes. But they cannot accept silence, confusion, and endless delays,” he said. (LLP)
