ILOILO City – The upgrading of the water treatment plant of Metro Iloilo Bulk Water Supply Corp. (MIB) will not only benefit the city’s economy due to additional water supply. It will also help combat the adverse effects of the El Niño phenomenon.
MIB, the joint venture company between Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) and Metro Pacific Water (MPW), is upgrading its water treatment plant’s design capacity from 37 million liters per day (MLD) to 50 MLD.
The month-long rehabilitation started on Feb. 26. Target date of completion is before March 31.
“The move is also timely as the country experiences El Niño,” said Eng. Rolixto Jodieres Jr., chief operating officer of MIB.
In its climate outlook for the year, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) stated that the El Niño will likely to continue until the April-May-June 2019 period.
Jodieres said all production facilities of MIB have standby power generators to combat longer power interruptions during the dry season.
“These generators will provide buffer power so MIB could deliver consistently even without the electricity from local electric cooperatives,” said Jodieres.
MIB has also tapped the services of small bulk water providers to augment its water supply during the dry season.
“We already completed the construction of the infiltration gallery. This is the source of the additional raw water supply. This infiltration gallery has a design capacity of at least 10 MLD,” Jodieres said.
The water treatment plant upgrade is part of the development programs in the pipeline following the finalization of the joint venture project of MPW and MIWD in December 2018.
This paved the way for the P12.3-billion water facility upgrades in Iloilo City that will ensure access to safe and potable water of around 1.4 million people living in Metro Iloilo in the next 25 years./PN
