Quezon City--- A new, innovative method of tapping river for potable water supply will be tried with the implementation next week of an P11-million foreign-assisted water supply improvement project in Sipocot, Camarines Sur intended to meet the long-term needs of domestic and commercial water concessionaires in that Bicol municipality. .

Administrator Lorenzo H. Jamora of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) said the project to be funded by a loan from the Asian Development Bank ADB) through LWUA will be implemented by the Sipocot Water District (SWD). The project will tap the wide Sipocot River as source employing a novel approach in water catchment and treatment which is both cheaper and causing least disturbance to the river's natural appearance and flow, he added.

Instead of the conventional way of constructing structures directly on the river such as dam and sand filters to catch the water and rid it of impurities and sediments that both usually entail the altering of the river's natural appearance and flow, jamora said the SWD through a private contractor that won a public bidding for the project has come up with a design that will achieve the same purposes at lesser cost and least disturbance to the river itself.

Engr. Edwin Saldivar, general manager of the SWD , explained that per the novel design, a 100 cubic capacity concrete water storage unit shall be constructed at the river bank at depth approximating the river's lowest water level. It will have a projecting solid catchment and filter shaft to allow the entry of water into the storage unit aided by the suctioning effect of a submersible pump fitted inside the same unit to drive drawn and stored water up to a multi-media filter facility.

Saldivar said the multi-media filter facility shall be constructed in an elevated area near the highway along the southern side of the Sipocot River bridge and will be equipped by pumps to drive the treated water up an already existing elevated concrete ground reservoir for distribution by gravity to the water district's concessionaires.

The project, said Saldivar, will benefit the water district's existing more than 2,400 household and commercial connectors and provide for the need of an additional 2,000 connectors up to the next ten years at least.

Engr. Reli Carandang of LWUA shall supervise the construction of the project which shall also include the installation of transmission and distribution lines, new service connections and rehabilitation of existing old pipelines.

According to Saldivar, the project's original design had deep well as source to solve the water shortage problem already being felt especially in the elevated portions of the existing service area. However, the well drilling conducted last year failed to produce the desired yield prompting SWD to request LWUA to revise the program of work and consider surface water as alternative source.

The Sipocot Water District was named outstanding water district in the average water district category in the Bicol-Visayas area and nationwide during the last LWUA-Water District National Forum held at the Manila Hotel in March this year.

The successful completion of this innovative project, will not only enhance the recently-gained reputation of the SWD as among the model, better-run water districts in the country today but also offer hope to other water districts having source and supply problems on account of declining groundwater yield, Jamora said.
c August 09 , 2006