Urban poor group to hold pila-balde protest on World Water Day

Members of Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (KADAMAY) will hold 'pila-balde protest tomorrow morning, in time for the celebration of World Water Day in the North Triangle community in Quezon City.

The said protest aims to highlight the lack of access of urban poor to clean water despite government's promise of universal access to water after it passed on to private concessionaires the water service in Metro Manila in 1997.

According to Joy Lopez, leader of KADAMAY North Triangle, the privatization of water service in the country has led to high cost of water connection and rate of water service in the country.

Lopez is a resident of North Triangle since the 1990's. She has 8 children, while her husband does not have a regular employment. Since her water supply was cut four years ago, her family was not able to have the supply reconnected as she said it would cost her around P15,000. 

Her family gets their supply of clean water from a local water pump which charges P3-5 per pail of water. 

Lopez says, it is the same case to majority of some 7,000 families in North Triangle, and probably in other urban poor communities in Metro Manila.

Profiteering scheme

Lopez and her group also wants to call the attention of their fellow residents to act against the profiteering scheme of Manila Water Company, Inc, a water services utility company in the majority-owned by the Ayala group.

She adds that while majority of residents cannot afford the high cost of water connection from the said water company, majority of the few residents who enjoy the service of Manila Water are charged with commercial rates of water.

Lopez cites the case of Mr. Danilo Reyes, a resident of North Triangle since the 1990's. Manila Water has charged Mr Reyes with commercial rate for his water consumption. This costs him as much as P61.96 per cubic meter of water. Only this January that the Manila Water office has stopped charging him with commercial water rate after asserted at the main office of Manila Water that he be charged with residential rate. 

From P4,151.60 worth of water bill in December 2012, Mr Reyes received P976.06  this January. According to Reyes, many residents of North Triangle are still charged with commercial water rate by Manila Water, the reason why many urban poor in his area are not able to pay for monthly water bill.  

 

After the program, residents will join a protest led by Water for the People Network at the MWSS office in Old Balara, QC. They will call on the government to scrap the high cost of water connection, and to nationalize the water industry in the country. ###

Reference: Jess Alarcon, Kadamay media officer, 0920.592.4954