Pag-asa Island gets water treatment facility from MWSS

By Ronron
March 27, 2007

The remote island of Pag-asa in Palawan will receive a water treatment facility that could produce potable water for the soldiers and civilian people living there.

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, Jr. will bring the brand new Mobile Water Treatment Plant (MWTP) to Pag-asa, which is part of the contested Kalayaan Group of Islands, via a C-130 plane.

The MWTP, which can produce 1,000 liters of drinking water using sea water, 2,000 liters using brackish water, and 4,000 liters using surface water, is a donation of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS). It is worth P13 million.

The formal turn-over of the equipment was done yesterday morning at the La Mesa Dam in Quezon City.

“This mobile water treatment plant will help our soldiers on Pag-asa Island, by ensuring that the basic requirement of potable water is available to them while doing their job,” Ebdane said.

Living on the 32.6-hectare island are four policemen, seven Air Force personnel, nine Navy personnel, and 23 civilians. They all serve as watchers for the country against possible poachers, particularly from other claimant countries.

Vice Admiral Tirso Danga, commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Western Command based in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, said residents of the island have been producing drinking water only by boiling the ground water there.

But, he said, the water still has “a degree of salinity” even after going through that process.

MWSS Administrator Lorenzo Jamora said the donation is part of the agency’s commitment to look into the welfare of the AFP troops.

“I assure the good secretary that this will be a continuing effort (of assisting the AFP), as far as our pockets can afford it because we know that not only the people in Metro Manila would need water but also the environs all over the country,” Jamora said.

The equipment can store 10,000 liters of treated water, that can be consumed within three to four days. It has a dimension of eight feet high, 2.2 meters wide, and six meter long. It is also equipped with a 25-meter suction hose, and built-in diesel generator.

The water that passes through it go through the processes of sedimentation, filtration, reverse osmosis, and post-treatment.

Meanwhile, Danga disclosed that so far, there has been no incident of fresh fighting against the countries or territories claiming ownership either in whole or in part of the Kalayaan Group of Islands, namely Philippines, China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.

“I can tell you that the code of conduct of the claimant countries in that disputed area is working. As a matter of fact, we see no encroachment in the area and there is that mutual cooperation between the occupants,” Danga said.

He said they have not also observed any “additional fortification” by the claimant countries in the islands as “everything has remained in status quo.”/DMS