HISTORY
Numancia Water District (NWD) was formed on July 18, 1986 and was issued Certificate of Conditional Conformance # 259 exactly two months after, or on September 18, 1986. The formation of the District brought so much hope to the residents of Numancia, Aklan. For they were then using only communal pumps and were therefore, deprived of the convenience of having individual household service connections. Through the initiative of its General Manager, (he recommended the Water District formation when he was then municipal councilor), a Php 6.04M loan (LA No.3-216) was approved by LWUA on August 14, 1987 to finance an entirely new water system for the town of Numancia. The project was completed in 1998 and the new system became operational on January 19, 1989 starting with 400 service connections. In the same year, another loan of Php 500,000.00 (LA No. 3-288) was extended to the WD to finance the extension project to Barangay Navitas. With the efficient water service that the residents of Numancia enjoy, nearby towns like Makato, Lezo and Malay were convinced to have their water supply systems (WSS) be annexed to Numancia Water District.
Makato Water Supply System was annexed to Numancia Water District on June 16, 1988. The system was constructed in 1990 but was, however, abandoned after only about two years of operation due to inadequate supply and poor management and maintenance of the system. A Php 5.359M loan was thus approved by LWUA for its improvement. With the project’s completion and subsequent operation in 1991, the District was able to tap 430 new concessionaires in Makato.
Lezo Water Supply System, on the other hand, has been constructed sometime in 1979 by the Department of Public Works and Highways, and used to be operated by a water consumers cooperative. It was officially annexed to Numancia Water District in September 1989 when the local government of Lezo, Aklan passed a resolution to effect the annexation due to technical and financial problems. The District subsequently sought LWUA’s assistance to improve the Lezo water supply system. On August 28, 1990, it was extended an additional loan of Php 2.230M which was later increased to Php 3.869M in order to finish the project. Such big amount of investment, unfortunately brought only 241 connections to the District when Lezo WSS started operation in 1992.
About the town of Malay, it was officially annexed on February 22,1991. However, there had been no improvements yet as the proposed project on the Boracay Island (part of Malay) is still under negotiation at the time of audit, pending the finalization of the Memorandum of Agreement between NWD and the Department of Tourism (DOT).
For more than 8 years of operations, Numancia Water District was only able to generate 1,613 connections as of February 28, 1994. Because of low income generation and coupled with poor collection efficiency, the WD failed to meet both its operational and debt obligations to creditors. As of February 28, 1994, its financial obligation to LWUA alone has piled up to Php 1,357,410.90.00. To lighten the burden of the District’s shoulders, LWUA approved in May 1994 the restructuring of Water District’s Php 1,442,067.90M arrearages as of March 31,1994, and converted them into a new loan payable within 180 months starting April 1994 at 8.5 percent per annum. As of June 30, 1994, the District has been able to update its debt service payment to LWUA in accordance with the loan restructuring agreement.