FOR THE LAST few weeks we have not been writing even a single item in this column that is negative to the Davao City Water District (DCWD). It is because the water agency has substantially improved on many aspects of its services including behavior of its office personnel. Other than that the DCWD has also embarked more aggressively on something closed to our heart. That is, its implementation of the firm’s corporate social responsibility – the giving back to the host community by a corporation.
In this issue however, we have to express our disappointment because we and several other households in our barangay and nearby villages suffered an unannounced almost two days of water service interruption.
Yes, we noticed the gradual decrease in water pressure in our faucets starting early evening of Monday, February 24, Roughly at past midnight of the same day we eventually lost the water. Unfortunately for us we were unable to store enough water because as we said earlier there was no advanced announcement. With the low water pressure our household was only able to fill three containers capable of storing some three cubic meters of water.
With seven of us residing in our home and the water requirement of our children’s street side cold snack center, three cubic meters of water is hard to imagine how long will last. Believing that the outage will not last long, we did not immediately chatted with DCWD’s communication unit. However, when the water did not come back in our faucets at about 7 in the evening of Tuesday we have to chat with JC Duhaylungsod to inquire what happened. Sadly, the response sent at about 8:45 on the same evening, merely advised us her team will still have to inquire from the “concerned” department so she and her team will be given the reason of the service interruption.
Tuesday night passed and the household was hoping that by yesterday morning Wednesday, the water flow was back to normal. Unfortunately, it did not. It was still air coming out from the faucets. So we communicated again to the DCWD’s communications team. The answer we got at about 7:57 a.m. was still the same. “I-follow-up po namin sa concerned department for feedback and will update you as soon as we have it.”
Minutes before noon yesterday we noticed that water was already coming out from our faucets through its pressure was still far from normal. Nonetheless, it was sign that the water service was already restored.
The thing though is that there seems to be no effort to give us and the other consumers the reason and the status of the repair of the facility – if there was any damaged – so the water users would have been allowed to decide what move they have to take to satisfy their need for the precious liquid.
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What is happening to our “most livable” and “safest to live” Davao City these days?
For the past many weeks several attempts to smuggle cigarettes and illegal drugs worth millions of pesos into the city, and shabu trade busts in some secret warehouses and dark alleys happened. Thanks to the law enforcers, these were effectively neutralized.
Now comes the latest serious crime that tinted quite badly the image of the city – the daring midmorning hold-up of a pawn shop along Ilustre street in the downtown area of Davao.
Indeed the robbery was a daring act because the location of the pawnshop victim is only about half a kilometer away from the nearest police station and the time of the heist jibed with the opening of most business establishments in the area including a large department store where normally a number of people come and do their shopping.
And imagine too, how bold the hold uppers are casually walking around with one of them bringing high powered firearm.
Their committing the robbery in broad daylight was clearly a mockery of the law enforcers and a spite to the city’s civilian authorities headed by Mayor Basti Duterte who is believed trying to duplicate the ways of his father former mayor and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
Again, what is happening to our Davao City? Are we regressing? Are we backsliding to the “bad old days?
If we are, then some critics may be right in saying that our leaders are too pre-occupied with politics that they may have possibly neglected one important responsibility which is to maintain the city’s peace and order situation if only to retain the “most livable” and “safest” city in the country and Southeast Asia tags.
