TUBA, Benguet – Mayor Ignacio Rivera announced that the construction of the multi-million Tuba water system project recently commenced to ensure sustainable supply of potable water for over 7, residents living in the town proper before the end of the year.
The local chief executive pointed out that the put up of the town’s water system is one of the flagship programs of his administration considering the rapid increase in the population of the central barangays wherein there was also a subsequent increase in the demand for potable water supply.
He added that the first phase of the project amounting to around P8 million was already awarded to the winning contractor wherein works for the laying out of the pipelines recently started aside from the construction of the appropriate impounding facility within the water source in the Badioan river.
“We hope that the implementation of the water system project will go on smoothly so that our constituents will be able to realize sustainable supply of potable water round the clock even before the end of the year. We will continue to closely monitor the implementation of the project so that the contractor will be able to complete the project in the prescribed timetable,” Mayor Rivera stressed.
He underscored that potable water is one of the basic necessities in life that is why the municipal government will continue to embark in looking for other available sources of potable water for other barangays of the municipality so that people will be enticed to reside in any part of the municipality and that investors will be convinced to establish their businesses in the locality because of the abundant supply of water which they need for their continuous operations.
According to him, part of the water system project will be the construction of the impounding facility that will provide adequate potable water supply to the residents interested to avail of the services of the facility through established pipelines so that the distribution of the water will not be a major problem in the future.
Initially, the water system will be operated by the local government in partnership with the consumers so that there will be a captured market for the water that will be pumped from the Badioan river up to the designated impounding facility.
Mayor Rivera claimed there is a need for the local government to maximize the potentials of is existing water resource so that the municipality will be able to earn substantial income that could be plowed back to the people through the implementation of high impact development projects capable of improving the lives of the populace and enhancing the delivery of basic services necessary to address the basic needs of the people in the countrywide.
Tuba is a first-class municipality that heavily relies on the operation of the Philex Mining Corporation as its primary source of internally and externally generated funds, thus, the need for the local government to venture on other resource-generation activities that will replace the income derived from mining once the company will end its mine life by 2022.
Among the other potential sources of income for the local government include tourism, agriculture, and other major economic activities that will ensure the sustainable economic growth of the municipality thereby sustaining its current classification.
By HENT