Desalination plant aims to solve water shortage
A desalination plant has been put up in Iloilo City in order to provide a solution to the problem of limited water supply here.
The plant is a pilot project of the Mactan Rock Industries, Inc and SM City Iloilo, where it is located.
Desalination refers to any of several processes that remove the excess salt and other minerals from water in order to obtain fresh water suitable for animal consumption or irrigation. If almost all of the salt is removed for human consumption, sometimes the process produces table salt as a by-product.
According to Camelo Antonio Tompar, president and chief executive officer of MRII, Iloilo does not have any more fresh water sources. "The real source (Maasin Watershed) is 30 kilometers away, and the cost of bringing that water in the city is more expensive than desalination. Also consider the leaks in the pipes. The longer the pipes, the more the leakages are. Also, I talked with the manager of the Metro Iloilo Water District and he said that they cannot supply the water that's needed."
He added that deep wells don't provide solutions either. "The water that you get from the deep well is called the fresh water bubble, but if you dig deeper, that's already salt water," he said.
The desalination plant of MRII also clarifies and disinfects the water that it gets. "We have to do this because the water here is muddy and has a smell. We also need to disinfect it from bacteria."
RELIABLE
Tompar said that a desalination plant, which costs P3-million, can be put up anywhere you need it and leakages are reduced.
"Desalination is more reliable, more sustainable and environment friendly compared to other technologies. In fact, worldwide, almost 90 percent of water purification uses desalination than distillation," he said.
Desalination of ocean water is common in the Middle East (because of water scarcity) and the Caribbean, and is growing fast in the USA, North Africa, Singapore, Spain, Australia and China. It is used also on ships, submarines and islands.
COST
The cost of the water is also site specific. For example, truck water costs P25 per gram while desalinated water costs P5 to P6 per gram. Moreover, truck water is not clean.
This present tie-up with SM City Iloilo will pave the way for the company to go into much bigger desalination projects which will provide clean potable water on special economic zones, and hopefully, the country's problem on the supply of clean potable water will be a thing of the past.
RISING NEED
Iloilo City has a population of 400,000 and the use of water has increased steadily for agricultural, industrial and recreational uses, according to Mayor Jerry P. Treñas.
"This raised concern for the availability of water supply. Also, this has affected the quality of water we have because of the seepage of pesticides and insecticides, among others. Thus, the putting up of this plant is timely and significant," he added.
SHORTAGE
Earlier, MIWD Interim Manager Edwin Reyes said, the water produced from the water district's sources drastically reduced from 40,655 cubic meters per day to only 26,000 cubic meters per day.
Reyes said they need to produce 44,105,38 cubic meters per day of water to serve the needs of its 128,000 city consumers. He explained that the normal production of water in water treatment plants is 350 liters per second or 30,240 cubic meters per day in their water treatment plant.
Currently, water treatment plants can only produce 170 liters per day or 14,685 cubic meters per day. MIWD's primary source of water supply, the Maasin watershed is already dried up. They wanted to drill more wells in the town of Oton to address the water needs of its consumers.
Treñas urges consumers to use water sensibly.