Island water from ‘solar well’

Some 18 kilometers northeast of Coron in Palawan is the island of Tara. There, drinking water used to be expensive as it has to be bought and brought from the mainland by boat, according to Engr. John Gil Ynzon, head of Palawan Water (PW), the government-run water agency of the province that helped build the facility. With the completion and operation of a solar-powered deep well desalination plant in the barangay, Ynzon said the cost of water is less as residents can have it delivered to their house from the facility.

The Tara Level III Water System collects, treats, stores and distributes up to 36 cubic meters of clean water per day to 303 households for drinking, sanitation and irrigation. Reverse osmosis technology turns seawater into potable drinking water. Solar energy runs the plant and there is a diesel engine backup generator to run it during rainy weather, the Palawan public information office said.

Local government officials led by Coron Mayor Marjo Reyes, together with PW representatives led by Ynzon, inaugurated the plant last 24 May, a day after a similar facility was inaugurated in Barangay Buenavista in mainland Coron.

The two solar-powered desalination plants are the last of 13 water projects under the Coron Water System Project of the town.