MCWD assures cheap desalinated water in '09

The Metro Cebu Water District and Japanese consultants who are conducting a feasibility study on the proposed desalination plant in Mactan said the price of desalinated water would not be too expensive for locators inside the Mactan Export Processing Zone.

During the second presentation of the feasibility study last Tuesday, Angelo Cabije, MCWD's JBIC-SWRO (Japan Bank for International Cooperation-Saltwater Reverse Osmosis) project coordinator said that in terms of water cost, locators inside MEPZ could afford to buy water from the plant.

He said water from the desalination would cost P P68.03 per cubic meter in 2009, when the project is expected to start operating.

According to Cabije, P68.03 per cubic meter four to five years from now would be no longer that high. "In terms of cost, MEPZ locators can afford to pay P68.03. At present, they even buy water by as much as P200 per cubic meter from trucks," he said. MCWD also supplies water to MEPZ at P43 per cubic meter.

Shiraishi Masayuki, team leader of the group that conducted the feasibility study, said that if locators in MEPZ would not buy desalinated water, that would be the "worst case that could happen." However, he said they are keeping their faith that the investors would buy water from the plant because Mactan, at present, needs more water because of the growing number of investors in the economic zone.

According to him, they had initial talks with the industry owners already and would have still more talks in the future about the project.

Earlier, Philippine Economic Zone Authority director general Lilia de Lima said that desalination is costly and the price of the water that would be supplied to industries inside MEPZ could be much higher than the present price that is supplied by the MCWD.

She said that while they expect more industries to relocate in MEPZ, they are hoping that they could lower the demand for water inside the economic zone in the next few years through conservation and wastewater treatment and water reuse.

"We can't assure na kukunin namin lahat kasi nga mahal (We can't assure that we would buy all the water because it is expensive)," De Lima said, adding that they are also hopeful that Cebu can get water from Bohol soon to augment the supply of MCWD.

While she admitted that the demand for water inside MEPZ is quite high, she said that they are working on how to lower it by finding alternative sources and through their newly constructed wastewater treatment plant.

The desalination plant is expected to produce 15,000 cubic meter of water a day. Water price is estimated to be at P68.03 per cubic meter in 2009 when the plant starts operating. At present, MCWD supplies water to MEPZ at P43 per cubic meter.

Based on estimates, the construction cost of the project alone amounts to at least P2 billion for the facilities for pre-treatment (P250 million), reverse osmosis (P600), and post treatment (P150 million), including the input taxes.

Operating and maintenance cost of the plant would also amount to P93 million a year for its power, P32 million for chemical dosing, P11 million for reverse osmosis element, and P0.7 million for safety filter.

Based on the feasibility study, the ideal site for the plant is in Punta Engano. Seawater would be taken from Hilutungan channel through intake pipes that are 100 meters offshore from the coastline in 10 meter deep in the sea and would be processed through reverse osmosis method. - Wenna A. Berondo