Balilihan awaits Richli’s plans for town
The local government unit (LGU) of Balilihan awaits the complete proposal and detailed plans of Richli Water Supply (RWS) for the town in relation to the water supply services the company is offering to the place. This is one of the key points brought up in a meeting, held in Balilihan on Oct. 14, 2020. The meeting was attended by the Balilihan LGU officials led by Mayor Pureza Chatto and the RWS delegation headed by its RWS President, Ralph Miguel Lim and its Vice President for Communications, Elmer Lim. During the meeting, RWS bared its desire to provide bulk water service to Balilihan town by supplying water through pipes. RWS added that the water to be supplied to Balilihan will come from its source in barangay Patrocinio, Cortes. Sources say that the said meeting was set in response to the letter request of RWS expressing its desire to supply water service to Balilihan. The LGU wanted to listen to what RWS has to say regarding offer to supply water to the town. RWS bared in the meeting that its oplan for the town is primarily to offer a bulk water supply service to the LGU and the LGU in turn will be the one responsible for the direct distribution of said water resource to Balilihan’s individual consumers. In the course of the meeting, Mayor Chatto requested the RWS representatives to disclose to the LGU a more detailed plan of their offer to supply water to the town and such plan should include particulars and details of RWS’ master plan for Balilihan. Chatto added that there is a need for the LGU to be informed by RWS about the latter’s master plan for the town since the LGU itself has already its own 25-year master plan. During the said meeting, it was brought up by RWS president Lim that RWS is interested to engage in an operation and maintenance kind of service for Balilihan’s waterworks needs.
The mayor reiterated in the same meeting that the town has a functional waterworks system. According to sources the Balilihan waterworks system is led by Engr. Gold N “Goldyn” Myra Bayocot. In the same meeting, Mayor Chatto appealed to RWS to help the LGU of Balilihan realize its master plan for the benefit of the people of Balilihan. The mayor stressed that there is no problem with RWS’ intention to present its water services to the town for as long as RWS’ services will immensely benefit the town residents. This idea of Mayor Chatto was strongly supported by Kag. Lorenzo Baliong, the chairman of the committee on waterworks at the Balilihan Sangguniang Bayan (SB) during the meeting. Moreover, Mayor Chatto emphasized that the town welcomes all parties who wish to invest in Balilihan. However, she also pointed out that any project proposal or any investment proposal for the town should follow all the processes mandated by the LGU and one of these is the process of discussions
and consultations. Chatto also mentioned during the meeting that any project proposals for the town should be studied thoroughly with dialogues/consultation/with the town’s Executive Committee, to cascade to the Municipal Development Council, then to the SB for any legislative action or for any granting of authority to the mayor to enter into an agreement for and on behalf of the LGU. Chatto, in the said meeting, also poured out her hopes and sentiments saying that if possible, no investor’s actions should derail the implementation of the town’s bulk water project based on the 25-year master plan. Chatto explained, further, that currently the town is working on a bulk water project that is sure to benefit the residents. The project, she explains, is one which is designed to store water in existing and future water tanks from water sources located at the Hanopol area. Eventually, the water stored in tanks will be distributed to Balilihan consumers. The mayor added that the LGU needs to ensure that water resources of the town are being enjoyed by the residents. In this connecton, she asked RWS to help the town in realizing its water project plan, as contained in the town’s 25-year master plan and discourage anybody from derailing the fulfillment of this plan for the benefit of the town residents.
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Richli issues statement on its Balilihan bulk water plan
Richli Water Supply (RWS) president Ralph Lim has issued a statement through a text message sent to the Managing Editor of the Bohol Tribune/ His statement is about RWS’ plan to supply bulk water to Balilihan town. The statement was sent to The Bohol Tribune on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020. In his statement, Lim said that he mentioned during the Oct. 14 meeting in Balilihan that RWS is ready to start a bulk water supply concession to the town and if granted the approval to start with the project, said project shall have been finished after two (2) months. Lim said that RSW can bring water to Balilihan after a period of two months. In the same statement, Lim told Mayor Pureza Chatto that RWS is against the move of Bohol Water Utilities Inc. (BWUI) to get deepwell water from the town’s water resources. The company is against this move because it is not sustainable and it is contrary to former Gov. Edgar Chatto’s (now first district congressman) thrust of Sustainable Bulk Water Supply in the province per Provincial Development Council (PDC) Executive Committee (Execom) Resolution No. 44-2017 which Cong. Chatto signed on March 7, 2017 at the People’s Mansion. Moreover, Lim said in the same statement that only surface water is sustainable and not deepwell water. The young RWS president said that his company is committed to support Cong. Chatto as the latter said that only surface water is sustainable but also healthy. Lim quoted some newspaper and radio reports that Mayor Chatto is about to enter into a memorandum of understanding with BWUI to dig and extract water from deepwells in Balilihan . Deepwells, Lim said, may lead to sink holes which are not environmentally-friendly.