BAGUIO CITY — SM City Baguio joins at least 22 SM Supermalls in the country in battling water scarcity by employing facilities in their establishments aimed to reduce freshwater consumption.

SM City Baguio assured mall goers and tenants of continuous water supply for cleaning and sanitation, without having to fully rely on the water table of the city.

All wastewater from tenants and mall restrooms are treated in the sewage treatment plants to become non-potable water. The recycled water is then used for cooling towers of air conditioning units, watering plants around the mall, and for cleaning of lavatories.

Recently, the Baguio Water District warned of a possible decline of water supply the coming months.

In the early 2000s, SM Prime started to build malls with wastewater treatment facilities for the recycling of water used in the mall and in 2021 the SM Supermalls was able to save a total of 8.7 million cubic meters of water across its malls nationwide — enough to fill 3,480 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

SM Supermalls vice president for Corporate Compliance, Liza Silerio said that aside from minimizing the impact on common water resources, recycling water through these sewage treatment plants allows their malls to save big on water costs.