Water is life. It is the most essential element of existence. It rounds with the circle of life. It runs in unified agreement with the cycle of our get-up-and-go. And according to Leonardo da Vinci, “Water is the driving force of all nature.” So that when our faucet runs dry the essence of life splits and our temperance is tested, especially when hotlines are likewise closed. Yet when one noble leader steps in and acts in haste to resolve the issue without fanfare, our nature reels back and in the sweet spirit of gratitude we are humbled. Then we realized, as it is said, “that life is simple, just add water.”I am deeply grateful personally to Surigao Metropolitan Water District (SMWD) Chairman MANUEL KONG for making himself available anytime of the day and any days of the year, whether during the busiest of holidays, on call or Facebook message for consumer assistance. Personally he never failed me, and from his own words of personal acceptance of his responsibility as a noble trust placed upon him to diligently serve the consumers, I believe he did the same to all regular water users.
My first experience of his prompt action was in the year 2016 Holiday Seasons. The day before Christmas we had been wanting of water and we could not contact the hotline. Water came past the Christmas Eve. Then again on the day before New Year our faucets run dry for more than 24 hours. Still nobody answered the hotline. I understood it was Holiday and all are very busy with their New Year’s Eve preparations as much as they were during the Christmas Eve. But I believe that hotlines are purposely installed to cater to calls for concerns 24 hours a day. I tried to find the Facebook account of the General Manager purposely to send him a private message about our water concern. But I found none. I was already impatient and so I posted my grievance on Facebook. What made me even irritated is that our house is just about 50 meters to the Canlanipa housing water reservoir and our next door neighbor had water in their faucets. I was enraged because it was not days of water crisis; those were days of overabundance of water in the rainy season. As we were already grumbling for want of water while preparing our feast for the New Year’s Eve, it dawned upon me that my prominent classmate Manny Kong is a member of the SMWD Board of Directors. I immediately checked on Facebook for his account and found that he was the Chairman of the Board.
I was wondering if he ever will still recognize his old college classmate which he no longer meet in many years. I was kind of hesitant to send him my request as I know that he too was very busy for the coming celebrations. Yet driven by our dire need for such a life sustaining element---water, I sent him a friend request and a private message about my concern requesting him for help. It was about midnight on the 30th of December and surprisingly early in the morning of the 31st I received a notice that he had accepted my friend request and a private message that he had already reported the matter to Engr. Espina. I waited until water came 30 minutes before New Year’s Eve.
The history of our water connections dates back when the Canlanipa Housing Reservoir which was constructed purposely to serve the water needs of subdivision occupants was constructed sometime between 1994 and 1995. I was very happy then because our house and lot was very near the reservoir. In fact our connection was second nearest to the reservoir at that time. However, the reservoir was eventually used as a common supplier for all and to my dismay, the first two of us connected into the waterline had always experienced dried faucets because the water from the reservoir were siphoned and drained fast down the pipes in the lower elevation. Hence, Engr. Orestes Añonuevo and Engr. Ensomo decided that three of us should be given a separate connection direct from the reservoir using a one inch plastic pipe. That resolved the problem for many years. Then about three or four years ago, we have this disturbing water problem back.
Since those celebrated nights of the Blessed Season in 2016, we have had a series of the same concern, but we always waited in patience. Every time this happens I find myself looking at the water reservoir in front of our home and felt like those in the old Visayan adage “Nagdungaw sa dakong linaw, namatay sa kauhaw.” When the same problem arises I tried to exhaust all possible means to find resolve before I finally call on Chairman Manny Kong as it would be an incursion to his personal privacy and also out of respect for his honorable office. But when I do, I am always afforded a share of his busy hours and prompt action.
Last Saturday, July 15th we again experienced the same water interruption at 12 noon when we were just having our lunch. My daughter who was then doing laundry was already enraged because nobody would answer the hotline. At about 6PM, as it was my assignment to prepare for dinner, I found our sink still filled with used utensils. I checked with my daughter if she had called SMWD again. She did but nobody answered. It’s when I decided to send a private message to Chairman Manny Kong. In seconds he favorably responded informing me that SMWD personnel will be coming. While I was thus doing my cooking, I heard somebody calling my name. In a few minutes our water supply was restored. I immediately went to my computer to express gratitude to Chairman Manny Kong and found that he already reported that our water supply was already okay. Of course I thanked him so much and expressed apology for the disturbance, but as always his response is, “That is the call I am appointed to do.” In service, his rank and position was the last thing in mind.
This may be just a matter of triviality in so far as public service is concerned, but it is in this kind of trifling and inconsequential acts of service and kindness to ordinary citizens that makes a government employee a true and real public servant---a servant-leader. John C. Maxwell wrote: "It is true that those who would be great must be like the least and the servant of all...If you want to be successful on the highest level, be willing to serve on the lowest" (Relationships 101, p. 89). “What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others” (Pericles).
“Gratitude is said to be the memory of the heart” (Joseph F. Smith). I wrote not to please SMWD Chairman Manuel Kong, but to express my deepest appreciation from the bottom of my heart in the sweet spirit of gratitude and in acknowledgement of his simple acts of exemplary service to a lowly citizen as I am. If I am personally to award him for having solved my every-now-and-then concerns for our water supply, I would do as President Kennedy has said, “Anyone who can solve the problems of water will be worthy of two Nobel prizes--- one for peace and one for science.”
It is my hope that he still will find more opportunities to serve in his lifetime, especially as regards his present plans to improve our water system and to other public service where he may be called upon to perform.
