DA, PLGU turns over P25M desalination

facilities to Talibon, Bien Unido islands

TALIBON, Bohol, July 9 (PIA)— Government and Local authorities turned over two sea-water processing facilities in two off-grid islands of northeastern Bohol, solving perennial problems associated with fetching potable water from the mainland, some 30 minutes or an hour away, or buying a P20 processed water for P50 to P80, just to have domestic water in the island.

Provincial government authorities, Congressional representative Maria Vanessa Aumentado, Department of Agriculture (DA) officials and World Bank representatives formally handed to two island barangay governments, two P12,732,543.93 solar powered saltwater desalination facilities for Guindacpan Island Talibon and Bilangbilangan Island in Bien Unido.

DA representative Engr Noel Cahiles, Talibon Mayor Janet Evangelista, Board member Jiselle Rae Villamor, Congresswoman Aumentado, Nxtlvl, as contractor and barangay officials of beneficiary islands cut the ceremonial ribbon to symbolize the operation of the facilities that signals a new future for the residents.

The facilities that involve multi stage process comes with filtration tanks, photovoltaic cells, battery storage, water reservoirs in a building solely for the safekeeping of the facility and operation.

The P25,465,087.86 facility would now serve over 5,000 residents whose inter-generational problem of lack of potable water in the island and its host of other associated problems of productivity and costs, is now going to be a memory.

Built for the Philippine government’s DA under the World-Bank-funded Philippine Rural Development Project, the facilities are 80 percent grant and the 20 percent funded both by the DA and the Provincial Government, according to Capitol consultant and retired planning and development official Engr. Ronilita Bunado.

For Guindacpan, an island nearly 10 kilometers off mainland Talibon, the new facility would cut the domestic costs associated with potable water use: where each population is using an average of .5 liters a day for drinking. For their kitchen, laundry and bathing use, island residents draw salty water or use the few rain water collectors.

From the mainland, an 18 liter water container, which is at P25.00 is sold here at P50, considering the costs of transport and the investment factors.

The facility, which could now supply the domestic needs of potable water for Guindacpan, Mahanay and Calituban islands, can also supply the needs of Bansaan and Sag islets.

Capable of producing some 22,000 liters of water per day by normal use, the desalination facility here could now provide each individual some 8 liters of potable water every day.

“We still have to pick up the containers from the docking area and bring them home,” Lorna Padillo, septuagenarian who also earns a living in the islands’ small but operational market, said.

Herself still unbelieving she could still see in her lifetime the realization of a dream of making potable water accessible from the island, and seeing the brood of benefits this could bring, she could only say: “Nagpasalamat jud kog daku nga niabut sa among isla ang tubig, mao gyud ni ang among gikinahanglan, nagpasalamat jud mig daku.”

In the next town in Bien Unido, the team also braved a squall and rough waters to hand-over another solar powered desalination facility to Bilangbilangan Island.

Lying some 15 kilometers northeast of Bien Unido in mainland Bohol, Bilangbilangan island, subdivided into two barangays Bilangbilangan Gamay and Bilangbilangan Daku have been surviving on water from a few salt-water intruded deep wells and occasional rainwater collectors.

An 18 liter processed water bought from the mainland is sold here at P80, that residents have to only use the water from salt-water wells to rinse sea water, which is what provides their hygiene needs.

Now, with the 22,000 liters of water available within the island, residents decided to use the facility as an economic enterprise, like the three more similar facilities the islands off here have been given since Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado and his wife congresswoman Maria Vanessa, took the high posts here.

Before his suspension, Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado has pushed for the island’s desalination facilities for PRDP Funding, knowing that people who have to drink salty water is risking kidney diseases and its myriad of expensive complications.

Moreover, he said there is so much productivity and opportunities lost with people fetching water, saving kids from water-borne diseases sometimes caused by contaminated rain water collectors, cutting causes of morbidity, saving costs of transporting the water and losing the much needed income supposedly for food in the table for the expensive water.

Over the development, Maricel Pañares, 31 years old of Bilangbilangan said “Nalipay mi nga naa nay tubigan sa amo kay dili na mi moadto sa lungsod ug daku ni og ikatabang namo nga mga islahanon.”

At that, residents reiterate, Salamat kaayo sa gihatag karon nga proyekto sa tubig. Sa tinuod ang isla, nagkonahanglan judo g tubig, mao nga daku jud mi og pasalamat ni Gobernador Aumentado nga iya gyud mong gitaan og grasya nga tubig. Salamat sa uban pa nijang gihatag nga grasya sa Bilangbilangan.”

In fact, according to Provincial Planning and Development Office in Bohol, these are just some of the water projects that Capitol is implementing now.

In the pipeline are PRDP’s P4.6B bulk water project that would soon be benefitting 5 towns and the city, all set for implementation under the Aumentado-Balite Administration. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)