Water desalination still not viable — MWSS

According to Ty, the Philippines does not have the advanced technology needed to do the desalination process.

MWSS is also looking at how countries with advanced water technology like Israel is using its gray water so that it may also be applied in the Philippines.

The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) on Monday said water desalination as response to the country’s growing water requirement.

At the Israel Innovation in Water Business Forum on Monday, MWSS Chief Regulator Patrick Ty said desalination has not yet achieved economies of scale that makes it commercially attractive for investors in the Philippines.

“We are blessed with natural resources but desalination is still a preliminary measure. We are studying it because we want to use it for future purposes. But right now, it is still too expensive,” Ty told reporters.

This relates to prior reports requiring the use of 5 kilowatts of electricity to desalinate just one cubic meter of seawater.

“Kaliwa Dam is still our Plan A and I hope it would push through. It has been going on back and forth. The Kaliwa Dam is a project of the corporate office and according to them it is pushing through. But if it doesn’t push through, we are hoping to look into other resources. Wawa Dam is our plan B,” Ty disclosed.

Desalination is a process where salts and other minerals are separated from the water to make it potable or viable for other uses.

With desalination, the provision of tap or clean drinking water is a very expensive undertaking that requires the use of more energy. This, in turn, remains a big challenge.

According to Ty, the Philippines does not have the advanced technology needed to do the desalination process.

“Hopefully in the future, once proper and advanced technology is in place, then we can seriously look into it, especially that Laguna Lake could be tapped for this as it has the largest freshwater supply in the country. Otherwise, water would be too expensive for us,” he said.

Apart from desalination, the MWSS is also looking at how countries with advanced water technology like Israel is using its gray water so that it may also be applied in the Philippines.

“Right now, I think 80 percent of their gray water is being recycled and reused for agriculture purposes. Maybe next time we can look into it further. Right now the sewerage cover of Manila stood at 20 percent,” Ty said.

In March this year when the scarcity of water was felt the most across Metro Maila, Senator Vicente Sotto III proposed desalination as a solution to the water shortage affecting thousands of customers.

Sotto said it is time for the government to roll out its desalination plan even if the technology is expensive, arguing the state had spent more money on other matters.

The senator has long pushed to desalinate the country’s vast natural water bodies for supply.