National Water Resource Board (NWRB) dismissed the protest on Hedcor’s water permit application for the use of the Tamugan River for a hydro electric plant, by the Davao City Water District. Shockingly along with that ruling was the decision of NWRB to declare DCWD’s permit of use on the Tamugan River as null and void.
This is but another chapter in the battle for the use of Tamugan river by the DCWD and Hedcor. DCWD wants to tap the river as a water source to supply the city of Davao while Hedcor wants to build a hydro electric power plant on the river. DCWD had prior approved rights to the river issued by NWRB and used this as one of their arguments for blocking Hedcor’s moves.
DCWD has stated that a joint use of the Tamugan river for hydro electric and as a water supply is just not feasible given Hedcor’s design implementation. DCWD will settle for nothing less than Hedcor moving their hydro electric power plant elsewhere. DCWD’s arguments on the Tamugan river use can be found here.
DCWD had been accused in the past of dragging their feet in tapping the Tamugan River as water resource for the City of Davao. In their defense they had stated that they had in fact been busy with reforestation and rehabilitation of the area around the Tamugan river. One reason they had also not started any construction was because they were still looking for project proposals that were to their liking.
DCWD’s next steps now is to file a motion for reconsideration as well as to ask the Davao City Council to amend the city’s Water Code in order to block Hedcor’s plans.
Hedcor in the past has been accused of using its political clout in pushing this project to fruition, owing to the closeness of the Aboitizes to the Arroyo administration.
[source]
Category: Hydro, Aboitiz
