By MARK FRANCISCO
OPOL town in Misamis Oriental has signed a 35-year-contract with a second utility to provide potable water to the municipality’s 14 barangays.
“Pila na kini ka dekada nga problema, hopefully mao na kini ang solusyon,” Opol Vice Mayor Danilo Daroy Jr. said even as he welcomed the entry of South Balibago Water Resources, Inc.
The firm is not new in Opol.
In 2023, Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) contracted the Angeles City-based company as its bulk water supplier for Citihomes in barangay Malanang and Youngsville Subdivision in barangay Igpit, respectively.
The two are the most populated gated villages in Opol.
With this new contract though, South Balibago will become the new competitor of COWD.
“Mamili lang mo, puwede mo sa Water District, puwede mo sa Balibago,” Mayor Jayfrancis Bago told residents who filled Opol municipal gym to the brim January 29 during the public hearing for the contract’s ratification.
COWD sells water at P218 per ten cubic meters while South Balibago will sell it at P200 per five cubic meters as residential rate. (Other classifications are small commercial, medium commercial and large commercial.)
It will increase in not later than five years, depending on inflation.
Although South Balibago’s rates are relatively higher, COWD services could only penetrate the town’s easternmost barangays.
“Medyo mahal siya kay private man,” Bago admitted. “Pero under the contract, all of Opol’s barangays will be covered.”
South Balibago’s pipe laying is divided into three phases.
Full implementation of the third phase of the project will be in 2027.
Another source of water in the municipality is groundwater but this is discouraged by Bago.
“Since we are a coastal town, basin mahimo kitang sinkhole if we continue to tap the groundwater,” the mayor said, adding that he has already received a letter from DENR reminding him of the town’s aquifer.
South Balibago sources its water from Iponan river in Cagayan de Oro City nearby.
Established in 1958, its parent company Balibago Waterworks is currently providing potable water to more than 200,000 households all over the country.
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