ORMOC CITY– Despite its rich and abundance of fresh drinking water, the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) saw the need for this city to have a continuous service for clean and safe service water, particularly during calamities by providing a facility that is useful in the water conversion.
A water filtration system worth P5.4 million that has the capacity to process 3,000 liters of water in an hour was handed over to the city to help produce good drinking water in times of calamities.
The EDC, the country’s geothermal leader, turned over a mobile water filtration facility to the Ormoc city government accepted by its officials led by Mayor Lucy Torres-Gomez on Monday (March 13).
Turning over the facility was led by EDC’s assistant vice president and corporate relations and communications head, lawyer Allan Barcena; Estanislao Pialago Jr., Leyte Geothermal facilities head; and Erwin Magallanes, Leyte’s Corporate Relations team head.
The National Resilience Council Executive Director Silvestre Barrameda and a representative from the EDC’s technology partner Power 4 All also joined in the turn over.
“Mobile filtration system can purify water from any source. It is disaster equipment prepositioned to become more pro-active to respond to disasters. We hope this will serve to affected barangays, can go around and can produce sufficient clean and safe drinking water, along with other uses of water to serve 500 people. We hope this will be useful to the city,” Barcena said during the turnover of the facility.
For his part, Magallanes said that the facility will surely benefit the people of Ormoc whenever a disaster strikes which often results in a scarcity of drinking water supply.
“In most cases, communities suffer from water shortage when disasters hit their areas. This is why it is crucial for Ormoc City to have this water filtration system in their city not only for all its residents but also for EDC employees and our geothermal facilities that rely on safe and clean water,” he said.
Mayor Gomez expressed thanks to the EDC for always being responsive to the needs of the city for a long time.
It is projected to be of use among far-flung villages whose drinking water sources are not stable and may be affected by the calamities.
The project is part of EDC’s commitment to support Ormoc City’s climate resilience program that is installed as part of the city’s pilot Resilience Center.
For this program, EDC has tapped Power 4 All to install the mobile water treatment plant that has the capacity to treat ground water from rivers, lakes, and wells to produce clean and safe drinking water.
The process has passed the strictest health standards, even in times of natural disasters like typhoons and earthquakes when there is shortage of clean drinking water.
Power 4 All provides operation and maintenance support for at least a year starting from the date of the water filtration system’s commissioning and trains Ormoc City’s City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office on its operation.
(ELVIE ROMAN ROA)
