Desalination facility projects for Sulu, Tawi-Tawi up

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The police and military assured on Saturday to secure P144 million worth of desalination facility projects in island towns in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi where supply of drinking water is scarce.

Police Brig. Gen. Eden Ugale, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Saturday the provincial police offices in both provinces have been directed to help local government units secure the multi-million projects.

Bangsamoro Local Government Minister Naguib Sinarimbo and Donna Paiso of the Water Equipment Technology Industries Incorporated forged Thursday the contract for the setting up of desalination plants in Sulu’s island Pata, Panglima Tahil, Pandami and Pangutaran towns and in Tawi-Tawi province.

Each of the desalination plants for the four towns scattered in Sulu’s territorial seas are designed to process 20,000 liters of salty seawater into safe drinking water daily.

The desalination plants in different sites in Tawi-Tawi are expected to produce no fewer than 10,000 liters daily of drinking water from seawater.

The regional government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, through Sinarimbo’s office, allocated P114 million for the projects.

Thursday’s forging of contract for the projects, held at the Bangsamoro capitol in Cotabato City, was witnessed by accountant Bernard Sero from the Commission on Audit.

Sinarimbo, a lawyer, said the documents he and Paiso signed were premised on state accounting procedures.

“We can guarantee the public that all contracts pertaining to our projects, big or small, are done by the book,” Sinarimbo told reporters who covered the event.

In text messages to reporters, local officials and barangay leaders in the towns where the MILG is to put desalination facilities said they are grateful to the BARMM government for focusing attention on their need for water supply facilities.

Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, Jr. of the Western Command based in Zamboanga City said military units in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi shall help LGUs protect the projects from saboteurs.

“We were elated when we learned that there was this crafting of multi million contracts for desalination facilities in Sulu and in Tawi-Tawi,” Vinluan said.

Paiso said all of the major components for the desalination plants were produced in foreign countries.

“We’re putting up a revolutionary type of desalination plants in the recipient areas. We shall use desalination membranes that will transform sea water into safe drinking water,” Paiso said without elaborating.