This 2024, customers of the Laguna Water District Aquatech Resources Corporation (LARC) in Los Baños, Laguna have one simple question: can the concessionaire break what appears to be a curse of private water distributors in the province promising change in their poor services yet offering no actual solution?
Will 2024 be finally a lucky year for customers of the Laguna Water District Aquatech Resources Corporation (LARC)?
Last year, OpinYon Laguna ran a series on the endless complaints by residents in Los Baños and Bay who have felt the brunt of poor service by LARC, the concessionaire who runs the water supply in this town.
Despite its proximity to the Philippines’ largest freshwater lake, Laguna is a province where reports of poor quality of water (or even the lack thereof) are close to becoming an overused cliché.
This year, LARC consumers have one simple question: can the concessionaire break what appears to be a curse of private water distributors in the province promising change in their poor services yet offering no actual solution?
A recap
In the six years since LARC began supplying water to residents of Los Baños in 2016, residents have nothing to vent but frustrations on LARC’s ‘poor’ water service, leading to a meeting between the corporation and a concerned citizen, Likha Cuevas, in 2022.
In that meeting, Cuevas brought up collected complaints from other consumers regarding frequent water interruptions without prior announcement, yellowish and slimy water, sometimes muddy, old water pipes causing low water pressure, and poor customer service.
“The straw that broke the camel's back is the management's incompetence in handling the latest water crisis when the town was without water for five to six days (29 Oct-3 November 2022),” said Cuevas.
This was after tropical storm Paeng hit the town earlier that year.
Cuevas also shared that she talked to LARC Community Relations Manager Ms. Anna Karenina Puerto over the phone on November 2.
During their discussion, Puerto rejected her complaints and insisted that evidence be presented as “that people [who] were just emotional on their Facebook posts about their grievances against the company”’ is not evidence.
Then on June 2023, residents of Barangay Tuntungin Putho ended up without water for almost a week after LARC’s service was interrupted.
The cause of the water interruption was a damaged pump and motor at the Jubileeville Pump Station of LARC which according to residents has been the cycle of their barangay for two years.
By this time, local media outlets including OpinYon Laguna were caught up in the tale.
In an email to OpinYon Laguna, LARC said that it will be drilling a new deep well as backup in case another water interruption happens and it will be finished within the year.
On September 12, 2023, OpinYon Laguna asked for an update but did not receive any reply from LARC.
Comments online also suggested that the poor water service continues even after the incident.
“Kung ako sa inyo LARC ang i-announce niyo kung kailan magkakatubig, lagi namang wala eh, sanay na kami,” A netizen said on a water interruption advisory post.
Another chance?
Los Baños Mayor Anthony Genuino called the scenario a “crisis” and expressed consideration of exploring other options for a water source.
“Nirereview nga namin yung contract with them at talagang mukhang ano, kung ganyan talaga ang mangyayari e baka hindi na namin sila irenew at ibalik natin sa Laguna Water,” he said.
However, in a post this January 3, Genuino declared that “matapos ang meeting with LARC ay napagkasunduan na gagawa na sila ng bago at permanent water facility sa barangay (Tuntungin Putho) maliban sa naunang facility sa Jubileeville na madalas nasisiraan.”
“Masosolve na nito ang madalas na daing na problema sa supply ng tubig sa buong barangay,” he added.
The project is expected to be finished by April of this year.
Change is coming?
“Change is always coming but often never arrives.”
Though the government has been doing its part in addressing the problem, such as the recent groundbreaking of an Emergency Water Supply Facility in Barangay Tuntungin Putho, residents seem to have lost their trust in LARC after years of suffering from the kind of incompetence it has shown.
For a project that promises to end a very long water crisis, LARC has everyone watching from the residents that have been shouting for change, to the local government that has given them the chance to improve and to other private water distributors which will surely be put to shame if they fulfill their promise.
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