DENR eyes seawater desalination to supply small island barangays

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is eyeing desalination or the conversion of seawater into freshwater to provide drinking water to small island barangays in the country as part of the government’s efforts to address freshwater inaccessibility to some 40 million Filipinos.

DENR Undersecretary Carlos Primo David said the 40 million people nationwide who do not have access to a formal water supply rely on springs, creeks and even rainwater for their drinking water.

“While we have big projects in line for large cities such as Bacolod, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Tarlac and so on, we have to focus on the 40 million underserved population, and there are a few strategies that we have in mind in order for us to provide water to these communities,” David said at a press briefing.

The DENR official admitted that desalination is expensive and requires a certain volume to reduce infrastructure costs, but because of technology improvements, modular desalination systems, which can provide water to up to around 500 families in each desalination plant, are now available.

He said that each water treatment plant costs P5 million to P8 million.

David assured the public that desalinated water is safe for drinking, noting that it is being used in Middle Eastern countries and some parts of the US that do not have enough supply of freshwater.

The government will start the desalination process in 65 island barangays.

The government is considering a number of possible funding sources for its water infrastructure projects, including the government budget, soft loans from development partners and organizations, public-private partnerships and the issuance of government bonds, according to David.

“The government bonds are meant to fund government projects, priority projects and this is another possible source of funding other than, of course, obviously, the GAA (General Appropriations Act). And so the directive of the President is to start studying, ask help from our development partners World Bank, ADB (Asian Development Bank) and so on, to implement this,” he said.

President Marcos yesterday ordered agencies to craft strategies to provide water