SAFE. Officials of the Balibago Waterworks System Inc. and Barangay Lakandula, Mabalacat City toast with glasses of water from a local pumping station before drinking them to show that tap water is safe for drinking.
PHOTO BY DING CERVANTES
MABALACAT CITY – With the cost of basic commodities rising, the Balibago Waterworks System, Inc. (BSWI) here has offered local folk a significant cost saving measure: drink tap water instead of buying bottled ones from stores.
This, even as BSWI Deputy Managing Director Criselle Alejandro debunked reports that the firm has sought increase in rates for some 17,000 consumers in Angeles City and this town. She said the report has no basis despite the P21-million upgrading projects the BWSI has been implementing locally.
During the blessing of its 14th local pumping station in Barangay Lakandula here Wednesday, BSWI Area Manager Ponciano Cruz showed media the results of scientific tests by a firm recognized by the Department of Trade and Industry’s Philippine Accreditation Office that water supplied by BWSI passed all parameters under the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water.
"Physical, chemical and bacteriological tests were done and BWSI readily passed them," Cruz noted.
He said this meant that thousands of households who have relied on BWSI for their water needs no longer spend for mineral and other forms of commercial water being sold in stores in their neighborhood for an average of P40 per gallon.
To underscore the safety of the local tap water, BSWI’s Alejandro, Barangay Lakandula Chair Baltazar Imbong and other BWSI and barangay officials took a glassful of water each from the newly finished pump and drank it during the blessing rites the other day.
"Our tap water is potable and I assure all that it is absolutely safe for health," Cruz said. He said that BWSI Station 14 pump has enough pressure to provide running water to second floor of homes, and would even be adequate to take in another 1,500 consumer households.
BWSI now has 39 franchises spread in 12 provinces, including Pampanga, Bulacan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Pangasinan, Aurora, Benguet, Laguna, Batangas, Iloilo and Bohol.
The company, through its seven subsidiaries, now provides Level 3 water supply and distribution systems to more than 700,000 people in the Philippines.
This expansion has also translated into employment for more than 600 Filipinos all over the country.
