Looks like it has all been left to Davao City Mayor, Rodrigo Duterte, to decide the fate of two interested stake holders of the Tamugan river in Davao City.
He has asked for more time to decide the matter as it is technical in nature and needs further consulting. He has however assured that the decision would be fair and legal.
In one corner is the Aboitiz Group’s Hedcor subsidiary, who plans to tap the river waters to provide electricity to the Mindanao grid via a hydro electric plant. On the other corner is the Davao City Water District (DCWD) the franchise holder of water distribution in Davao who plans to tap the water in the river to satiate a city’s thirst.
Both parties have gotten government approval for their respective projects with DCWD getting approval almost 10 years ago.
Davao City Councilor Peter Lavina mentioned in his blog, that DCWD has a long history on sitting on projects and not implementing them.
About a decade ago, the water utility firm was also a recipient of fund support from foreign aid agencies on the sewerage system for the city. Nothing, unfortunately, came out of it. The same can be said of its plans for the Tamugan River as source of surface water. The National Water Resource Board granted it permit ten years ago, but nothing has been done about it. [source]
The Aboitiz group has already announced that it is near scrapping the Tamugan hydro project altogether.
[source]
Category: Hydro
