BACOLOD CITY – Mayor Albee Benitez here recently announced that they are eyeing 88 percent of households in this city to have 24/7 water supply by the end of this year with new bulk water sources coming online.

Benitez warned the Bacolod City Water District (Baciwa)-PrimeWater that he is waiting for them to accomplish their targets. “I’m watching over you. You must follow the deadlines you’ve set,” he said.

He noted in his recent State-of-the-City Address (SOCA) that only 45 percent of covered households have 24-hour water supply last year, and this number further declined due to the El Niño phenomenon.

Benitez said that the intervention he made to address the water crisis here resulted in the improvement of the water supply, citing a record-high water production of 84 million liters per day (MLD), which he claimed to be the highest in Bacolod history.

However, Benitez said that this city’s target water supply to be able to provide 24/7 water service is 120 MLD.

Last month, Bacolod Bulk Water Inc. (BBWI) and Baciwa-PrimeWater signed a bulk water supply agreement which aims to enhance water supply covering about 10,000 households in the south area of this city within the year.

“I made it very clear: We want 24/7 uninterrupted water supply in all areas that they serve,” the mayor said.

Meanwhile, Benitez said that power rates here went down from P15.16 per kilowatt in May to P12.76 per kilowatt in June. He is hopeful that power rates will continue to decrease in the coming months.

As we transform Bacolod City into a Super City, we need affordable, reliable, sustainable energy, Benitez said, adding that this city needs a distribution utility capable of meeting the demands of the growing and modernizing economy, including the expanding Information Technology-Business Processing Outsourcing, tourism, Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE), and creative industries.