Beneficiaries excited over Basilan desalination plant projects

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Residents of two towns in Basilan have mixed feelings about the desalination facilities now being set up for them to have safe drinking water from the sea, something first in their island province.

Basilan Gov. Jim Salliman said Saturday the two projects, bankrolled by the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, were launched in separate events last week in Tabuan Lasa and in Hadji Muhtamad towns.

Local officials and BARMM Local Government Minister Naguib Sinarimbo together launched the projects, each costing P15 million.

Tabuan Lasa Mayor Moner Manisan admitted on Saturday that he himself is excited to see a functional desalination facility that can convert seawater from around their island town into desalinated water that they can drink and use for cooking.

The towns of Tabuan Lasa and Hadji Muhtamad are both bereft of sources of safe drinking water.

Richard Falcatan, Basilan provincial information officer, said Manisan and his constituents are obviously anxious about the multi-million desalination facility that they are soon to have, for them something unusual, but well appreciated.

“Even so, the residents of Tabuan Lasa and Hadji Muhtamad appreciate the desalination facility projects,” Falcatan said.

He said the MILG-BARMM, the Basilan provincial government and the mayors of Tabuan Lasa and Hadji Muhtamad are cooperating in constructing the facilities.

Residents in Pilas Island in Hadji Muhtamad, where one the two facilities is being built, buy safe drinking water from seaside barangays in mainland Basilan from between P50 to P70 per gallon, according to local officials.

Basilan's deputy provincial police director, Lt. Col. Allan Mamarinta Benasing, who attended the symbolic event in Pilas Island, said their personnel in Tabuan Lasa and Hadji Muhtamad are to benefit from the MILG-BARMM’s desalination facility projects too.

Hadji Muhtamad Mayor Arsina Kahing Nanoh said her constituents in Pilas Island had promised to secure and maintain the desalination facility once functional.