Only one of the Tagbilaran City Workworks System’s (TCWS) 25 pumping stations was operational as of Tuesday while the entire province remained without electricity due to power facility damages caused by Typhoon Odette.
TCWS chief Peter Busano, during the regular session of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) on Tuesday, reported to city lawmakers that they have a single 47-kVA generator powering a 10-horsepower (HP) water pump in Barangay Manga.
However, the water pump could not release enough supply to serve the entire village.
“Didto namo gibutang sa pumping 16 which serves Barangay Manga, pero dili pud tanan sa barangay matubigan kay 10 hp ra man, gamay ra,” said Busano.
Before its facilities were damaged, the TCWS served 10 of Tagbilaran City’s 15 barangays and was almost solely reliant on power from the Bohol Light Company, Inc., which continued repairs of its typhoon-damaged facilities and awaited the reopening of the Bohol grid by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
The NGCP itself also continued their restoration of transmission facilities hit by the storm.
Busano added that they have four operational 10-kVa generator sets but each were only enough to power three-hp water pumps. Meanwhile, TCWS’s two other 10-kVa generator sets have bogged down.
“Di siya kapaandar sa five-horsepower ang 10-kVa so upat lang pud ka three horsepower ang napaandar karon,” he said.
In the same session, SP presiding officer Vice Mayor Toto Veloso questioned why the TCWS did not prepare generator sets prior to the arrival of the typhoon which started to affect the province on December 16.
“Wa ba mo mag ready ana, considering that we were already aware that the typhoon was coming, and most likely the blackout would happen,” said Veloso.
Busano claimed that they did not have budget for the equipment but Veloso argued that the procurement should have been a priority for the TCWS.
“Matud ni Engineer Busano na wa pa kunoy budget but you need to have a strong recommendation and suggestion that ‘we need this because this is urgent’, di man mahimo na dili na priority sa panagamhan sa atong syudad kay water is life. Maglisod kaayo atong mga taw og way tubig,” said Veloso.
According to Veloso, they can realign the city’s budget to purchase the generator sets if the designated department does not have enough funds for the procurement.
“If naa sa budget na pwede magamit, pwede ra gud diretso og ana na department mo belong. But if ever walay available budget, we could realign all the time para mangita og budget kay dili mana problema siguro pangitaan, we can sacrifice all the other appropriations to that particular concern kay priority mani,” said Veloso.
Earlier, the Bohol Water Utilities, Inc. (BWUI) which services the rest of the province also announced that they were in need of generator sets to power their pumping stations.
BWUI manager Felix Sunido said Monday that they were hoping to get at least four generator sets by “this week or next week” from suppliers in Cebu and Manila. (A. Doydora)