MALOLOS CITY—Long lines of people holding containers trailed water refilling stations in San Miguel town, while firetrucks distributed water to outlying villages. This is the troubling image that Claire Buencamino described to Punto in a telephone interview three days after Typhoon Santi pummelled Central Luzon and left searing reminders of devastation in San Miguel town and nearby areas.
“There was so much water and people died, now, we are running out of drinking water,” Buencamino said in the vernacular. She was referring to intense rains brought by Santi and the flashfloods it spawned early Saturday morning. Buencamino said the violent winds brought by the typhoon toppled trees and cut power lines.
This left the town without power until yesterday and forced the San Miguel Water District to use power generators to operate their pumping station and distribute water to their concessionaires.
“Potable water is our primary concern now,” said Buencamino who operates Aqua Clarita refi lling station at Barangay Poblacion. For two days, she said that they had to use a generator to meet the needs of San Miguel residents.
It meant additional cost in their production, but Buencamino said she cannot ask additional charges because everybody suffered.
The situation didn’t go unnoticed to Gov. Wilhelmino Alvarado who ordered on Monday that fire truck tankers from the cities of Malolos, San Jose Del Monte and Meycauayan and the towns of Marilao, Sta. Maria and Pulilan fire stations to deliver water to San Miguel.
Liz Mungcal, head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO), said that water delivered by fire trucks was meant to augment the situation. She said that as Meralco restored power supply in some villages of san Miguel town, some pumping stations of the San Miguel Water District started to operate.
However, Mungcal noted that as of yesterday, power was not completely restored and the water district still conducted rotational water distribution. She also noted that water provided by firetrucks is not potable and residents still have to boil it.
But she stressed that they have coordinated with the San Miguel Corporation (SMC) who volunteered to provide potable water to affected residents.
