DAVAO CITY (PIA) -- The first ever Davao City Water Summit was held on July 4 at the Park Inn by Raddisson Davao organized by Hydrology for Environment Live-Police Davao Network (HELP Davao Network) in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology.

“We want to increase the awareness ng ating mga Dabawenyos about sa sustainable use of water, what are the issues? Where are we know as to how we are using water, what are our concerns, what are going to change, what are we going to stop?,” said Dr. Ruth Gamboa, University of the Philippines Mindanao Professor and a member of HELP Davao Network.

The network is a group of water stakeholders working collectively for a sensible and sustainable use of water resources in Davao City and the wider region.

“We are expecting issues and concerns that needs to be addressed that needs action both from executive and legislative bodies of the city… there’s still a need to amend the current policies and regulations,” Cortez said.

Meanwhile, Davao City Water District (DCWD) spokesperson Jovana Cresta Duhaylungsod said that current studies still indicate that Davao City still has adequate supply of drinking water.

“There are eight watersheds in Davao City, five of which replenish our ground water sources… the three of these ang Talomo, Lipadas and Sibulan based on the study we commission nasa positive balance pa when we say positive balance ang rate of replenishment is more than the rate of extraction. So marami pa tayong surplus water  with respect to the three watersheds,” Duhalungsod said.

However, she said immediate actions must be implemented to conserve the water resource for the future.

“Another challenge that we foresee is the increasing water demand for the past five years you have seen how fast the development in terms of population, commercial, industrial developments here in the city, we project a spike of 825 million liters of water per day in terms of water demand in our service coverage area,” Duhaylungsod said. (RGA/PIA Davao City)