Residents of seven barangays in Valencia, Negros Oriental, are again enjoying ample supply of water after a major source damaged during flashfloods at the start of the year was finally repaired.

The Catmon water source in Barangay Apolong was destroyed at the height of the New Year’s eve celebration when heavy trains triggered flashfloods that swept major distribution pipelines down the Banica River.

More than 2,000 households had limited water supply for days and the local government of Valencia assigned water tankers and diverted another water source to the areas for a few hours each day, while the damaged Catmon water source was being repaired.

The affected villages are Balugo, East Balabag, West Balabag, Balayag Manok, Kalayugan, Bong-ao and Palinpinon.

The Catmon water source resumed operations on Sunday. However, repair and rehabilitation will still continue to restore its full operations, the local government said.

Meanwhile, about 500 households in the interior barangays of Bajumpandan and Cantil-e in Dumaguete have been fetching water from another reservoir after they lost water connection Sunday.

For three days now, people have been lining up at the reservoir in lower Bajumpandan from daybreak to dusk for their water supply after a pumping station in Cantil-e tripped off, Robert Acupanda of the Engineering Division of the Dumaguete City Water District, said.

He added that the DCWD repair team has been working double time on the submersible pump and, hopefully, water connection to the affected households would be restored later yesterday or early today.

The reservoir in lower Bajumpandan, unfortunately, cannot supply water to the affected areas as these are of higher elevation, he said.

Acupanda also assured that the disruption of water services in southern Cantil-e and upper Bajumpandan is technical in nature and not in any way caused by severe weather that has been felt here in the past days.*JFP

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