The proposed 30 percent water rate increase—pending at the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA)—proposed by the Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) on June 1, 2011 has revived calls to turn the facility into a cooperative.
“We will fight this increase. We will be forced to intervene since water is a very basic service. I’m not against turning the water district into a cooperative,” said city councilor Alden Bacal -- present chair of the committee on public utilities -- while past committee chair Ian Mark Nacaya said discussion on the proposal to turn the COWD into a consumers’ cooperative should be made and studied again in view of the planned increase in water rates.
The pronouncements came after Roman Catholic Archbishop Antonio Ledesma and his group Bishop-Businessmen's Conference (BBC) asked the Commission on Audit (COA) for copies of its reports on the COWD's finances from 2007 to 2010. The group wants to examine the finances of the facility and its management.
