THE Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) will build a new septage treatment facility that will more than quadruple its present treatment capacity and boost its septage collection rate from the current 8.1 percent to 100 percent by 2025.
MCWD signed with the Cebu City Government on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, a Deed of Grant of Usufructuary Rights at the Cebu City Hall which allows it to use the city government’s property at the North Reclamation Area as the site for the new septage treatment facility, MCWD said in a statement.
The Japanese Government, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), will fund the construction of the facility through a ¥2 billion (around P1 billion) grant.
Azukizawa Eigo, chief representative of Jica, said the project was envisioned in the Mega Cebu Roadmap 2050 to ensure adequate wastewater treatment in Cebu.
The current lack of septage treatment plants in Cebu “has forced private desludgers to dispose of the wastes to the sea or rivers, thereby contaminating water sources,” MCWD said.
MCWD Board of Directors Vice Chairman Frank Malilong Jr. hailed the signing of the deed of usufruct, calling it a fulfillment of MCWD’s mandate to deliver safe and potable water “and to ensure that wastewater is treated before this is returned to the environment.”
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama recalled that it was his grandfather, the late assemblyman Vicente Rama, who fought in Congress for the appropriation of P1 million for a citywide sewerage system in 1938.
The water district will now rehabilitate the existing septage facility in accordance with the standards of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
“Existing sludge will be removed and the lagoon will be filled up in preparation for the construction of the new facility,” MCWD said.
“Except for the preparation of the area, the new septage treatment plant will be constructed at no cost to MCWD, the Cebu City government or the consumers,” it added.
The existing septage treatment plant in the area can accommodate 120 cubic meters of sludge daily.
“When the new treatment facility, which can process up to 430 cubic meters of sludge per day, becomes operational three years from now, the capacity of the plant will increase up to 550 cubic meters daily,” MCWD said.
This will also increase the septage collection rate of MCWD from 8.1 percent now to 100 percent in 2025, with the facility also able to serve about 20 percent of all non-MCWD consumers, the water district said.
The property called the Amcon Site was selected as the location for the proposed Septage Treatment Facility in 1995.
The approximately 13,711-square-meter lot now hosts Cebu City’s septage treatment plant that began operating in 2014, MCWD said.
The Amcon Site was originally built, operated and maintained by the Public Estates Authority, which then donated it to the City of Cebu on May 19, 1981.
The City of Cebu became the full owner of the Amcon Site when another Deed of Donation was made in June 1991.
In March 2019, the Cebu City Government turned over the operation of the Amcon Site to MCWD through a deed of usufruct.