Tagbilaran Water Problem

By Joe Espiritu

Sunday Post

Man cannot live without water. Nor can he live if water is in the excess. Therefore he must have it in moderation. When man lives together for security or economic reasons, the water problem becomes directly proportional to his numbers. The more water he consumes, the more water he will pass out as waste. Urbanization creates water problems. So is the case of Tagbilaran City .

 To start, potable water availability here may have been solved. No one can complain of going thirsty or stinking because of lack of water. The problem here is wastewater disposal. Unwanted water may be excess precipitation or used water. They have to be eliminated if man is to stay healthy. However unwanted water disposal is no merely conveying it to the sea, as in the case of Tagbilaran they must be disposed accordingly.

 Tagbilaran is a major port city. There is constant passenger traffic.  As people come and go they may be wittingly or unwittingly carriers of communicable water borne diseases. The water they have used or came in contact with cannot just be disposed through storm drains. They must be treated first to neutralize or eliminate suspected presence of infection before disposal. A city like Tagbilaran must not only have storm drains but sewerage system as well. But Tagbilaran has not either of them.

 Due to its rapid growth, the city planners may not have placed importance on proper wastewater disposal. They may have other priorities. However, they can no longer ignore the lack of drainage or sewerage. Though Tagbilaran is just a microcosm of city life such as Manila, it has the same sewage problem though to a lesser degree. Perhaps the Manila system of wastewater disposal may be adapted here.

 Tagbilaran should not have problems in designing and maintaining it sewage and drainage. It is well above the sea level. In Manila, when heavy rains and high tide occur at the same time the waters in the Pasig backs up the storm drain and flow out in Morayta near the FEU. Floodgates and pumps have to be installed to return the water to the river. It will not happen here.

 In Manila the supply of potable water and disposal of sewage had been contracted to a government owned and controlled corporation like the National Waterworks and Sewerage Authority or NAWASA. Now, it has other names The City Engineer constructs and maintains the storm drains. The City Engineer may allow house connections to discharge only wash waters to storm drains but not septic tank water. The latter must be piped to the sewage system. But sometimes this arrangement is abused.

 It is not possible that establishments here are built without septic tanks. However, it is not clear if the city has a definite policy in wastewater disposal. It is not also clear if the city policy, if there is any, conforms to the policy set by government environmentalists. Unless they agree on the classification and mode of disposal of wastewater, there will always be a controversy.

 In Tagbilaran, the city authorities may enter into an arrangement wherein the Bohol Water Utilities Inc. may not only supply potable water but also dispose of sewage water as well. Since the city is fast growing, city authorities should start planning a storm drain system. They may start small and let the drainage system grow with the city. This will be a systems engineering problem but with it Tagbilaran can build it drainage using its own resources.