Sonny O. to focus on power, water crises if elected

CEBU, Philippines - Solving the crises on water and power in Cebu are two of the main action agenda of mayoralty aspirant John Henry R. Osmeña, if and when elected local chief executive of Cebu City.

Osmeña, who took his turn in The Freeman’s Know Your Candidate roundtable discussion on Wednesday, said the water problem in the city is a “very serious problem.”

“Father Engelen (Herman van Engelen, SVD) of the Water Resources Center of the University of San Carlos has been warning that Cebu will be having a serious water problem. And this has come true. (If elected,) I will find new sources of water for the short-term and the long-term,” he said.

Osmeña said sourcing water from other areas in the province such as Carmen in the North, Argao in the South and Toledo in the West is one of the short-term solutions to the water shortage.

In 2007, a consortium led by the Ayala conglomerate, proposed a P2-billion water supply project, which would have supplied up to an average daily of 40, 000 cubic meters of water per day from Carmen. The Cebu province is now eyeing to tap this water source.

“But the Province does not need (the additional water supply.) Cebu City is the one who needs it,” Osmeña said.

For a long-term solution, the 75-year old former senator said he will push for the implementation of bringing water from Inabanga Bohol and Negros Oriental via submarine pipes.

Osmeña, while still in the Senate, proposed to revive this proposal of former Cebu Governor Lito Osmeña. The proposal saw its end after former president Joseph Estrada was unseated from Malacañang.

He said water desalination or any of the several processes that can remove excess salt and other minerals from water to convert it to fresh water suitable for human consumption or irrigation, is an option. This however is “very expensive.”

But Mactan Rock Industries Inc. (MRII) chairman Antonio Tompar said the rate of desalinated water has become competitive and affordable as the technology for desalination is already fully-developed in Cebu. 

MRII, a water technology provided has been supplying desalinated water to several companies and residents in Cebu. The company is the main supplier of desalinated water to locators in the economic zones in Mactan.

Meanwhile, Osmeña said he has plans of developing non-traditional and renewable sources of power such as wind-generated power in the mountain barangay of Sinsin, and import fuel from Singapore, among other countries, to bring down the cost of power and fuel in Cebu.

A wind-generated power plant is one of the cleaner sources of power as it does not produce greenhouse gases, which cause global warming and climate change. It however needs a bigger space for the wind turbines.— Jessica B. Natad