Cataban, Hingotanan isles

Get water by desalination

HINGOTANAN WEST, Bien Unido Bohol, May 11 (PIA)—In a day, about 10,000 residents of 5 island barangays in Bohol’s second district get access to sweet water, after suffering from expensive water sourced from the mainland.

This as Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado along with project partners turned over two sea-water desalination projects that could give out 22,000 liters of potable water a day to a cluster of islands in Talibon and another one in Hingotanan West here.

About 5,200 residents of Cataban, Saag and Nocnocan and 4720 of Hingotanan West and East get at least 5 five-container gallons of processed water by three-stage reverse osmosis, for their daily use, for P15 per container.

The amount is measly compared to the P50 or P60 they are now paying for the potable water they source from the mainland.

Aumentado, who in 2016 as a congressman also turned over a similar facility to help his constituents in island barangays in his district said he learned four months later that the facilities bogged down because the community did not care much of them.

Traumatized of what happened, he placed his desalination plans for islands project in the drawer to find the perfect time for communities to responsively manage such investments.

With the World Bank funded Philippine Rural Development Project under the Department of Agriculture (DA), the desalination projects surfaced again as the DA saw the need for potable water in the island barangays here, especially in Bohol’s second district.

Seeing that the resurfaced project now has provisions for serious community preparations by the PRDP team, Aumentado, now a governor, readily put up the 10 percent counterpart funds for the PRDP projects, noting that the management team has readied community involvement and ownership of project, as well as devised a system for sustainability of operations by putting up provision for maintenance and operational costs.

“I have to set aside the project then because I do not see any reason why we put the same project in places where people do not take care of it,” Aumentado during the turn-over of the facility said.

Earlier during the day, Aumentado, with PRDP Regional Director Engr Cirilo Namoc, Congresswoman Vanessa Aumentado and Mayor Janet Garcia, also turned over a solar powered water desalination project in Cataban Island.

Here, without the rains, potable water can only be sourced from the mainland Talibon at P65 per 5 gallon container, or P20 of rainwater from a few private families with rain water collectors.

Lisud kaayo, ang tubig nga among makuha sa atabay, parat, di gani makapabuwa sa sabon, 44 year old Carla Garcia of Cataban’s Purok Mansanitas said, as she struggled on basins full of laundry along the island’s main road.

Daku kaayo among kalipay kay naluwas na gyud mi sa among problema dinhi, kay dugay gyud intawon ming nagsalig sa atabay, added 76 years old Corazon Badajos, who was sitting on top of a long line of water containers waiting for a filling at the newly opened facility.

Cataban, some 10 kilometers from mainland Talibon, is populated by some 480 families, and the source of water, apart from buying mineral water from the mainland, are a few dug deep wells, with issues of salt-water intrusion into their aquifers, endangering the health of residents.

Please do not imagine yourself again lugging containers to the mainland, it was way past us, and it should never happen again, Cataban Island Barangay Chairman Francisco Paden.

With a 22,000 liters a day output, Cataban facility also serves a population of 5,200 and includes residents of nearby Saag island and Nocnocan Island, according to Engr Ronilita Bunado, from the Provincial Planning and Development Office in Bohol.

Meanwhile, Aumenatado and party also turned over a similar but electric powered desalination facility in Hingotanan Island Bien Unido.

The island, comprised of two barangays: Hingotanan East and Hingotanan West has about 4,720 residents who also share the same plight as Cataban.

Lying about 30 kilometers in the middle of a scattering of islands in the Danajon Double Barrier Reef, Hingotanan residents buy mineral water from mainland Bien Unido at P50.00 per 5 gallon container.

Travel by an ordinary pumpboat from mainland Bien Unido to the island takes 45 minutes to an hour.

With an electricity served by the National Power Corporation’s Small Power Utilities Group (SPU), the P12,732,543.93 project would now be serving the needs of its residents. (rahc/PIABohol)

KEY OF RESPONSIBILITY. From the contractors: NXTLVL to the local provincial officials to Bien Unido MPDC Jane Zerda, the key of responsibility in the sustainability of the 12 million water desalination facility now rests in the shoulders of Hingotanan chairmen Leonidilio Paden and Pantaleon Mabalatan. (PIABOHOL)