Bauko water plant set for construction

By Dexter A. See 

BAUKO, Mountain Province – A multi-million water filtration and purification facility will be constructed in this fourth-class municipality in order to maximize the use of the abundant supply of water for domestic and commercial purposes, Mayor Abraham B. Akilit said here.

Akilit said the project will be funded by the P6 million secured by the municipal government from the Department of Agrarian Reform’s Agrarian Reform Irrigation Support Project (ARISP) and the P3 million counterpart from the local government that is composed of P2 million cash and at least P1 million non-cash component.

“The supply of potable water is one of the major concerns of upland communities that is why we worked extra hard to secure available funding in order to work out the implementation of the water filtration and purification project beneficial to the overall economic condition of the town,” Akilit stressed.

He said the project involves the laying out of at least 6 kilometers of pipelines from the water source at Mount Kalawitan to the filtration and purification plant prior to the distribution of the potable water to interested buyers not only from the municipality but also from the neighboring towns in Mountain Province and Benguet.

“The water purification project will be the local government’s economic enterprise which will be managed by experts in the industry and will serve as one of the sources of revenue that will fund the implementation of local development projects and facilitate the delivery of basic services to our constituents,” Akilit said.

He said municipal officials already coordinated with the Cordillera office of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) for the use of its available technology for the water filtration and purification project that will make the town a major supplier of potable water for barangays and municipalities having difficulty in accessing potable water supply for their people.

Akilit commended the members of the municipal council for their understanding and cooperation in working out the implementation of the project by approving the allocation of the town’s counterpart for the project.

Bauko is composed of 22 barangays with a total population of 34,000 and spread over at least 18,000 hectares land area within the Mount Data National Park.

Dr. Julius Caesar V. Sicat, DOST-CAR regional director, said the water filtration and purification project will be one of the most profitable ventures of local governments in the region considering that water, which is a major component of the project, is readily available in the area being a watershed reservation.

“We will extend appropriate technical assistance to local governments interested to venture into their desired economic enterprise so that they will be able to internally generate funds that could augment the meagre resources of the communities to implement more development projects and enhance the delivery of basic services to their constituents,” Akilit said. He appealed to local officials to support the local government’s initiative in realizing its water filtration and purification project for the benefit of the greater majority of the populace wanting to improve their economic standing by having gainful employment.