CdO council seeks COBI ops probe

Cagayan De Oro City — The City Council has approved a resolution urging two national agencies to investigate the city’s water district and its bulk water supplier.

The resolution, approved in a 13-0 vote with three abstentions, asks the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) and the National Water Board (NWB) to probe the operations of the Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) and its supplier, Cagayan de Oro Bulkwater Inc. (COBI).

The measure was introduced by Councilor Enrico Salcedo amid reports that the COWD plans to increase water rates for consumers.

Salcedo, who chairs the council’s public utilities committee, said the investigation is needed because the water district is expected to increase rates by nearly P4 every three years under a contract with COBI.

The contract, signed in 2017, was the subject of a dispute last year that led to a water supply crisis affecting more than 30,000 households.

The new COWD management contested the rate increase at the time.

A task force formed by Mayor Rolando Uy to address the crisis last year called for the COWD-COBI contract to be revoked, a position Salcedo said the city should pursue.