Prime Water Quezon Metro (PWQM) is at a critical crossroads of its water service delivery to its over 57,000 consumers in the two cities of Lucena and Tayabas and in the municipality of Pagbilao.
Carina De Asis, general manager of Quezon Metropolitan Water District (QMWD) said in an exclusive interview that the Board of Directors is still deliberating whether to push through with the full termination of its Joint Venture Contract (JVC) with Prime Water Infrastructure Corp. (PWIC).
The full termination of the contract means the 50 yrs old water district reverts the full operational control to the Quezon Metro.
Since August 2018, Prime Water operates, maintains and rehabilitates the water system while the Quezon Metro, which implements the policies and programs crafted by the 5-member BOD headed by Atty. Vicente Joyas, monitors functions and performance of the Primewater.
Pretermination
“Actually nag-start ng process of pre-termination in 2024 kasi doon sa joint venture contract may mga sections at pag-uusap na hindi sila tumutupad kaya humantong sa pre-termination. Pero mahaba ang proseso niyan kasi meron silang catch-up plan, mga pinapangakong programa,” De Asis told Opinyon Quezonin, citing "several breaches” in the contract.
The present BOD members included Atty. Joyas as chairman, Marie Nantes as board secretary, Asuncion Alcala as treasurer and Barbara ‘Ruby’ Talaga as director.
De Asis said there is presently one vacancy in the BOD whose members, representing different sectors, are appointed by the mayor of Lucena city.
De Asis said that Primewater had vowed last year to the Sangguniang Panglalawigan and the three legislative councils of Lucena, Tayabas and Pagbilao that it will implement a catch-up plan up to December 2025 but it did not materialize.
“Nagdi-deliberate pa ngayon ang board kung iti-terminate na ba o bigyan pa ng chance si Primewater. Pero as of now, iyong mga ipinangako nila sa mga Sanggunian ay di natupad,” De Asis said.
She said that in the last quarter of last year, the office of Senators Tulfo and Risa Hontiveros have summoned all the water districts nationwide to submit their reports to assess the water supply situation in the country amid the mounting numerous complaints against PrimeWater about the kind of water service delivery it has been doing to the public consumers.
De Asis also mentioned the recent buy-out of PrimeWater by a company of Lucio Co from the Villar family but she said there has been no formal written communication from any of the 2 parties addressed to them in the QMWD.
Ownership issue
Quezon 1st District provincial legislative board member Julius Luces in a phone interview on Friday has vehemently questioned the constitutionality of the transfer of ownership from Villar to Co saying there is no provision in the JVC about such transfer.
“Kasama ba sa Joint Venture Contract na pinirmahan ng QMWD at Primewater noong 2018 na puwede nila ibenta yun? Kasama ba sa mga clauses sa contract na kapag di nagagawa ng Primewater ang mga services ay puwede nilang ibenta?” Luces said, adding that he raised earlier the question of constitutionality of the buyout of Primewater during the public hearing and open forum attended by Sen. Risa Hontiveros and other local political leaders and civic personalities in San Pedro, Laguna last January.
Luces has demanded the return of the operation of the Quezon water district to QMWD.
“Di ba sa contract pag di nagawa ng Primewater nang maayos ang water services ay dapat ibalik nila ito sa dati, sa QMWD? Yung pagbebenta kasama ba sa option sa contract yan? At saka, yang water district ay may prangkisa yan na binibigay ng kongreso so dapat sila ang may go-signal sa buyout, hindi basta private to private agreement from Villar to Co.”
Breaches and non-compliance by Primewater
De Asis enumerated the breaches and non-compliance by PrimeWater which included the failure of its commitment to deliver P1 billion worth of projects within the first phase in the contract; the large volume of water leakages affecting the water supply, the failure of its commitment to deliver water service 24/7, the non-replacement of the majority of old water pipelines; and deterioration of water quality that has been described by numerous complaining concessionaires as yellowish and smelly.
De Asis said that the JVC requires PrimeWater to put up P5 Billion in the entire 25 yrs. of the duration of partnership agreement and P1 billion for the first 5 years but only over P300 million has been fulfilled. She said it would have been a big deal if PrimeWater made good to deliver P1 billion worth of projects for the 1st phase but since it did not the BOD considered it as a breach in the contract.
She also disclosed that Prime Water has not been able to solve the massive problem of water leakages which now amounted to 42 percent of its total water supply intended for the public consumers. She said that the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) allows only up to 20% of water leakages for all water districts in the country.
De Asis disclosed that Primewater was able to replace and rehabilitate only 6% of the 524 kms. of water pipelines in the 3 service areas of Lucena, Tayabas and Pagbilao.
50 years old pipeline
“Kung bakit nagkaroon ng Joint Venture Contract ang Quezon Metro at PrimeWater ay dahil sa mga pipelines na 50 yrs old na since mag-start ang water district. Wala itong funding support from the national government kungdi sa mga water concessionaires lang kaya ininvite ang Primewater.”
She acknowledged that water system improvement is a long process and replacement of old pipelines required various permits from the city government and from DPWH.
She mentioned an incident when a certain telephone company in Tayabas did its own digging and busted a pipeline. So it needs a study and the matter of water pipeline replacement is costly, she said.
She bemoaned the fact that when QMWD was still at the helm of the operation of the water agency, water concessionaires experienced 12 to 18 hours of continuous water supply, but with PrimeWater many were complaining that they get water only for 6 hours, some even 4 hours daily like in Bel-air subdivision in Brgy. 10 when residents get water only from 4am to 8am.
About water leakages, De Asis said it is really the water consuming public who suffer as they do not get sufficient water supply for various needs but instead get wasted.
Water rate
Before the JVC in Aug. 2018, the QMWD charges concessionaires for a minimum rate of P146 for the 1st 10 cubic meter of water consumption, said De Asis.
Primewater asked for a tariff increase in 2021 from National Water Resources Board to P224 for the same quantity of water used. At present, she said, it is P230 and since last year the approving agency is now the LWUA.
Many water concessionaires in the three service areas have been complaining that PrimeWater has raised water rates but they get less and less of water supply.
Many residents have also complained of weak flow of water in the faucets and they have installed water pumps to facilitate water flow to fill up various water containers.
Transition period
Aries Resurreccion, branch manager (BM) of PrimeWater in Lucena, was reluctant to answer the various issues raised against the water firm that has taken over the water district since 2018 saying they are in a transition period.
“Nasa transition period kami. Mahirap magsalita sa issue ng pretermination at may sagot naman kami at pinag-agreehan para ma-compensate ang mga breaches,” Resurreccion, who assumed post as BM since June 1 last year, said they are still fixing up the breaches in the contract so the partnership gets going smoothly.
“Kami pa rin naman sa operation, billing, collection at maintenance pero nasa transition phase kami from Villar to Lucio Co,” he said referring to the reported recent transfer of ownership of PrimeWater to a Co-led company called Crystal Bridges Holding Corp.
Non-revenue water
“Our top priority project now is non-revenue water (NRW) na ito’y mapababa namin sa target na 20 percent,” Resurreccion said adding that before the takeover in operation by Primewater NRW due to water leakages has reached 67 percent but Primewater has reduced it to just 44 percent at present.
He said that they are focused now on water pipeline replacement, especially on areas that have big impact on the reduction of NRW.
“We have identified areas at tuloy ang pipeline replacement namin lalo na sa Tayabas – sa Muntingbayan, Lovely, Mateuna, Tuazon,” said Resurreccion who was previously with QMWD as technical head and after Primewater takeover, became BM at the water districts in Mauban and Atimonan.
He said that in Lucena they have done pipe replacements at the Dalahican road, Cotta DENR Compound, Site, Diversion road, Employees Village but he was unable to come up with actual figures overall in pipe replacement as he has no available record on hand now.
When asked about the failure by PrimeWater on the P1 billion worth of projects for the 1st phase of the JVC, Resurreccion declined to answer but said they are trying to increase their capital expenditures to be able to realize their catch up plan in water system development program for their 3 service areas of Lucena, Tayabas and Pagbilao.
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