CENTRIO MALL, Cagayan de Oro City
The
CAGAYANLifestyle TIMES Weekly The Origins of Oro’s Water Supply de Oro
Volume 4 | No. 20 | Cagayan de Oro City | Dec. 26 - Jan. 1, 2017
Before the municipal water system was constructed, Kagayanons used to get their water from the Cagayan River
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As collated by Mike Baños from Kagay-anons Kaniadto
ast November 17, 2016, Mayor Oscar S. Moreno led the ground breaking for the PhP 4.9-million Indigenous People Cultural and Community Water System (Phase II) at Sitio Malasag, Barangay Cugman.
The water system project is a joint endeavor of the city government, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) through the Bottom Up Budgeting (BUB) Program. The COWD put up P2.9 million for the project, with the DSWD and city government sharing P1.4 million and P600,000, respectively. Datu Masikal Jude Jabiniar thanked the project partners, particularly Atty. Gabriel Alqueno for donating the land for the installation of the water system.
Mayor Oscar S. Moreno leads the ground breaking for the P 4.9-million Indigenous People Cultural & Community Water System (Phase II) at Sitio Malasag, Barangay Cugman (CIO photo)
“It is ironic that many people had forgotten that the Malasag Spring provided Cagayan de Oro its first ever running water but for many years Malasag was itself without a water system,” Datu Masikal said in the vernacular. “We are happy that finally our place in history is recognized and the city government made things happen to finally give
our residents their own water system.” In the olden days of Cagayan de Misamis, the townsfolk of the capital town of the Segundo Distrito de Misamis relied on the Cagayan River as its main source of water. According to former city mayor Reuben Canoy, “Then, dirty water for kitchen use was drawn beside the
river bank and sold for P1 per kerosene can and clean water for drinking, taken by enterprising boatmen from the middle of the river, sold for P2 per kerosene can. After the cholera epidemic, US Army doctors ordered the public to drink only boiled water.” “To prevent future outbreaks of waterborne diseases, the local government built in 1922 what was to become the town’s first water system, source of which came from a spring in the Malasag Hills and was distributed from the concrete water tower which today houses the City Museum.” “After World War II, the Cagayan Waterworks was taken over by the National Waterworks and Sewerage Authority (NAWASA). It was virtually a two-man The Rio Verde Water Consortium treats raw water from the Bubunawan River into origins/PAGE 7 potable drinking water for COWD since 2007.
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