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Senate asks for free water
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Posted on Aug 13 2005
The Senate has adopted a resolution asking Gov. Juan N. Babauta to authorize the Saipan Mayor’s Office get free water from the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. for distribution to residents and farmers who have no access to water.
Sen. Joseph Mendiola said Senate Resolution 14-56 passed during a session on Tinian last week.
“It [resolution] is asking the governor to have the mayor to continue to distribute water for free to people who don’t have access to it. It was clarified during the session that it’s only for those who have no access to water,” said Mendiola.
The resolution, introduced by Senate minority leader Pete P. Reyes, originally sought to provide “equal distribution of the water supply to all government offices and agencies.”
Senate majority leader Paul Manglona, meantime, said that while he sympathizes with people who do not have access to water, he said it’s more practical for people to call CUC directly.
“To me it’s a little bit political. I mean, why do you have to make a resolution? You just need to call CUC,” said Manglona.
He said the resolution aims to ensure that the Mayor’s Office gets access to CUC water hydrants for distribution to affected people. Shortage of water is experienced in several villages on Saipan.
This developed as the CNMI Water Task Force maintains that it would meet its goal to have 24-hour water supply on Saipan by end of the year.
The task force has so far drilled 28 wells and tested 18 of them, which are expected to provide an additional two million gallons of water a day to CUC.
The exploratory well drilling operations are ongoing in Gualo Rai, Mt. Tapuchao, As Matuis, and Marpi, while well field improvements are underway in Kagman, Agag, Obyan and the Sablan Quarry well fields.
The task force said that the six new replacement wells in Agag can altogether produce in excess of one million gallons of good water a day.
Last February, the task force also struck an underground water supply on Mt. Tapuchao, which was initially estimated to have the capacity to produce up to 288,000 gallons a day.
At present, CUC is estimated to provide 8.5 million gallons of water a day.
