THE City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO) is exploring ways to reuse volumes of treated water produced by the sewer treatment plant (STP).
CEPMO head Cordelia Lacsamana said the STP has been producing 8,000 cubic meters of treated water daily and this just drains down to the Balili River.
She said the office utilizes some of the produce in watering plants in parks and along streets but still a great volume is wasted.
“I think it’s time to tap the potential of this treated water especially with the city’s water shortage problem,” Lacsamana said during an inter-agency meeting for the drafting of the action plan for the onslaught of the El Niño phenomenon October 16.
She said they are studying the possibility of the city constructing a micro-hydropower plant to convert the water as energy source.
While this plan is still on the drawing board, she encouraged other sectors to avail of the treated water for purposes like flushing, cleaning and watering gardens.
“The water is treated and safe for said purposes. It is even safe for human contact,” Lacsamana said.
To prove that it is safe for human contact, she said that no one among the personnel who have been handling the water, herself included, had contracted skin disease or any infection as a result of exposure to the water.
During the meeting, Lacsamana brought out the possibility of tapping the water in the flushing and fire-fighting operations of the Baguio Fire Department as substitute to the potable water being used by the department.
Baguio City Chief Fire Marshall Ferdinand Joe Bangyod promised to consider the suggestion given their logistics and available equipment.
Lacsamana said the city has been paying P350,000 annually to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as penalty for discharging wastewater, treated and untreated, into the Balili River.
It will help if the city will find ways to reuse the treated water in face of the water shortage problem, she said. (Aileen Refuerzo)