CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Pilipinas Water Resources Incorporated (PWRI), a private water supplier at the South Road Properties (SRP) in Cebu City, said the reclamation area can help alleviate the water crisis in the metro.
Geoffer Gonzaga, the general manager of the PWRI, faced the Cebu City Council for the Citizen’s Hour on Tuesday, November 26, 2019, to explain the firm’s desalination plant that is the main provider of water supply at the SRP.
Currently, the PRWI is extracting and desalinating 9,000 cubic meters per day in 5 active wells around the SRP providing to the major developments in the area.
They are planning to expand their operations by 2020 to 14,000 cubic meters per day as they have earned a contract with MCWD to distribute 6,000 cubic meters to the local water utility.
MCWD is distributing water to at least six local government units with the bulk of the supply going to Cebu City. The demand is roughly 400,000 cubic meters per day, but MCWD only delivers 250,000 cubic meters per day.
The local utility is paying P24.96 per cubic meter to PWRI for the water supply.
Gonzaga said this price was not the same with private establishments supplied by the PWRI since the cost of their services was generally at P47 per cubic meter for potable water.
However, this is their corporate responsibility and a way of helping Metro Cebu amid the water crisis.
Read more: Cebu City Water Advisory Committee to probe MCWD for water crisis
Yet in the session, Gonzaga said the City Council could help subsidize the payment of the water supply so MCWD could get more supply for them.
In an interview after the Citizen’s Hour, Gonzaga assured that there was enough brackish water, or freshwater mixed with saltwater, underneath the SRP that PRWI could tap in the next 30 years to provide water to the nearby establishments and even help the rest of Cebu City.
“There is enough water in the SRP that we can desalinate. By next year we hope to increase our supply, in this way, we can at least help ease the water crisis,” said Gonzaga.
Gonzaga said they would still need to dig for more wells at the SRP should they plan to increase their extraction in total, without having to over-extract each well.
The Cebu City Council promised that they would find ways to help PRWI increase its extraction through legislative interventions.
They also asked PWRI to study the groundwater wells in the SRP thoroughly to know how long the supply would last./dbs