Gov. Ralph DLG Torres has not yet officially decided on the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s standing request to declare a state of emergency over a reported water shortage, a declaration that would be the first of its kind in CNMI history.<\/p>\n
Torres earlier indicated that decision would be made yesterday, Monday, but the Torres administration yesterday was still weighing the \u201clegality and feasibility\u201d of the CUC board\u2019s request, Saipan Tribune learned.<\/p>\n
The exact details of such a declaration has not been made immediately clear, and if this would allow a circumventing of procurement regulations to address water issues. Torres earlier said he would be learning what \u201cthe declaration entails and what is their solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torres reiterated yesterday morning that he would be calling on and meeting with CUC on the proposed declaration of emergency for water yesterday.<\/p>\n
Asked why was the emergency necessary, Torres said that according statistics provided by CUC, \u201cthere were $15 million loss [of water] as of last week\u201d in water.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s critical,\u201d he told reporters yesterday. \u201cAnd I have asked them to work diligently and give me a report on the water situation here in the CNMI. Our ultimate goal is to get a [reverse osmosis] system so people can start drinking water. I have asked them to do it by phases, or grids, or zones. But if we are getting this loss, this 50 percent loss [of water], it\u2019s not feasible to bring an RO system when we can\u2019t even fix our own system of water leakage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torres said he has asked CUC\u2019s water task force to \u201cprioritize\u201d the water leakage, reportedly at over 70 percent \u201cunaccounted for\u201d water.<\/p>\n
CUC board member from Tinian, Eric San Nicolas, made the motion to request Torres to issue an emergency declaration immediately after the board emerged from a three-hour executive session on Friday.<\/p>\n
The motion was to \u201crequest from the Governor\u2019s Office to make an emergency declaration as a result of the cost to address the state of the water infrastructure on Saipan and the financial inability of CUC to fund that cost which gives CUC the eminent inability to provide adequate, 24-hour water supply for the residents of Saipan that affects the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of Saipan,\u201d San Nicolas said.<\/p>\n
The CUC board, with David Sablan absent, voted to approve the motion.<\/p>\n
The CNMI government has declared monthly a state of emergency for CUC\u2019s power infrastructure that allows, among others, the CNMI governor to reprogram funds, suspend procurement laws or rules to address the emergency, and allows CUC to retain staff not U.S. citizens or permanent residents.<\/p>\n
CUC has been under this state of emergency for more than 10 years now. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres has not yet officially decided on the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s standing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[26,49,3617,1421],"class_list":["post-225228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-cnmi","tag-cuc","tag-david-sablan","tag-eric-san-nicolas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}