Water district tapping two rivers to counter ‘Super El Niño’

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — The Cagayan de Oro City Water District (COWD) announced on Friday it has identified two major rivers in the city as new source of water to address the Super El Niño weather phenomenon expected to affect the country in the following months as forecasted by the Philippine weather bureau Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).

Dr. Gerry Carno, COWD chairman, said that their technical working group has also completed its plan on constructing a P5-million water plant to be supplied by the Bobonawan and Cagayan rivers.

“The plan is already in place we are just waiting for the funding of the project,” Carno said.

The utilization of water from the two rivers is part of a 10-year development and modernization program (2025 to 2035) to overhaul aging infrastructure and improve service reliability. The program, valued at approximately P9.3 billion to P12 billion, focuses on large-scale repiping to replace decades-old pipelines and address high rate of water loss through leaks and theft.

The multi-billion-peso undertaking is to be financed through COWD tariff increases, government funding, loans and potential public-private partnerships.

Cano also said included in the plan is to deploy mini water tankers to distribute water in areas with narrow roads that hinder the entry of such vehicle in the area.

To date, he said the water district has three small tankers that are making rounds to areas affected by water interruption.

He also advises consumers to conserve water this early by recycling water in their households.

PAGASA warned that an active strong El Nino is intensifying to “very strong” or “Super El Nino” from September to December persisting to the first half of 2027.