Desalination pushed to avert water deficit

CEBU, Philippines - For Manila to prevent a severe water supply shortage problem, industries and commercial entities must learn how to conserve and minimize water consumption from water utilities and should instead embrace desalination technology.

This according to water technology expert Antonio Tompar who added that Manila will only be rescued by the looming water problem if it were to follow the example of Mactan Island, wherein resorts and other industries have learned to utilize the desalination technology, in order to give way for the residential users not to be deprived of water supply.

According to Tompar, commercial and industrial entities should see the huge contribution they could give to majority, if they have to consider utilizing the technology, to avoid water shortage.

“Commercial and industrial sectors can afford to source the desalination process. This is very important so that the Philippines will not be known as a country that has severe water supply problem.

Besides, Tompar said desalination process right now is no longer an expensive technology because it has become a competitive water technology in the world.

In Mactan Export Zone 1 and 2 for instance, companies are already utilizing desalination technology for their operations’ needs. This way, water supply from the water utility company will be focused on providing to the residential users.

Desalination refers to any of several processes that remove excess salt and other minerals from water. Water is desalinated in order to be converted to fresh water suitable for human consumption or irrigation. 

Most of the modern interest in desalination is focused on developing cost-effective ways of providing fresh water for human use in regions where the availability of fresh water is limited.

A water shortage in Manila has prompted authorities to reduce supplies to some of the city's 10 million residents and tell them to avoid baths and washing their cars.

The northern Philippines would normally have been hit by about two tropical cyclones already this season, replenishing water supplies at Angat Dam, but there haven't been any yet, said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

“We recognize we now have a water shortage,” the department said.

The department said it was forced to reduce supply to an estimated 480,000 people, or 80,000 households, by five percent. It said it expects the situation to improve with the onset of rains in the second half of May.

“Do not use bathtubs. Don't wash your vehicles daily,” water authorities told the public in a statement.

Taking advantage of the desalination technology can also be applied in Cebu City, Tompar said, so that problem of water shortage in the next few years, can be easily arrested.

Tompar added that that desalination technology has slowly taken off in the Philippines in the last few years, while cost of desalinated water has become competitive to that of water source from traditional method.