Drinking water from the toilet

For the past year, Ernesto Labuntog has been looking for a market for his invention called Rapid Multi-Media Filtration System. With the RMMFS, highly contaminated raw water sources and waste water (such as those from toilets) can be purified into safe iodized water. (Based on Department of Health data, about 40% of the population is deficient in iodine).

"My only supporter is the Department of Science and Technology. Nobody here wants to look at my invention," said Labuntog, even as a group of Singaporean investors has expressed interest to buy his technology and to pay him royalties for setting it up throughout the Philippines.

He has approached and has been turned down by the Local Water Utilities Administration, the overseer of the water districts in the country, as well as by the two private water concessionaires servicing Metro Manila.

A 100 cu.m. per day RMMSF plant can serve 2,000 persons. The initial investment is P500,000, which a local water district can recover within six months to a year. A 1,200 cu.m. per day plant can serve 198,000 persons. At an initial investment of P20 million, return on investment is projected at three years.

Given economies of scale, the bigger the system and the more its client base, the lower the cost per cubic meter of iodized water. Based on Labuntog’s calculations, a 100 cu.m. plant can sell its water to clients at P26/cu.m. while a 1,200 cu.m. plant can sell at P8/cu.m. In comparison, Maynilad Water Services Inc. charges P27/cu.m. and Manila Water Co. charges P14/cu.m.

Among local government units – which needs the nod of the Department of Interior and Local Governments – the price of putting up the water filtration system can be further lowered through bayanihan and the free use of raw materials and local labor.

The construction timetable is one to one to two months.

"If the Department of Agriculture approves it, the RMMFS can be in place before El Nino comes in October. We can immediately recycle a portion of the contaminated water supply in the shallow tube wells (which the DA is now distributing nationwide to help irrigate farms and to reduce the impact of the El Nino phenomenon) and the 200 wells all over the country into drinking water," said Labuntog.

Breakthrough

Described by the DoST as a "technological breakthrough", Labuntog’s invention subjects water to relatively high pressure. The RMMFS is made up of a pre-treatment tank, a treatment tank and disinfection and storage tanks through which raw water is processed, using a series of multi-media filters such as anthracite, activated carbon, pebbles and coarse sand.

At the end of the process, RMMFS purifies highly turbid water by as much as 100 NTU (nephelometric turbidity units); reduces toxins and heavy metals to acceptable standards for drinking set by the World Health Organization; removes objectionable color, odor and taste; and removes chlorine acid and its hazardous by-products such as chloroform, which are known carcinogens.

Although a mechanical engineer by education, Labuntog spent most of his professional life, including a long stint with the US Air Force, as a chemical engineer. Having worked for 25 years abroad – providing potable water in the deserts of the Middle East, especially during the Gulf War – Labuntog now wants to do his share in providing safe drinking water for the country he still calls home.