BAGUIO CITY – The Baguio Water District (BWD) urged local residents to put up small rain harvesting facilities within their homes to help store water during the rainy season for them to have adequate water supply which they could use for their domestic needs during the dry months.
BWD general manager Engr. Salvador M. Royeca said that it is high time that the local legislative body enact an ordinance compelling residential and commercial building owners to establish their own rain harvesting facilities within their structures to catch the excessive water brought by the rains that visit the city annually so that they will have a buffer supply of water when the summer months start to prevail in the city.
“BWD is not a profit-oriented organization but it is a service-oriented one that is why it does not have that much funds to bankroll the put up of as many rain harvesting facilities as possible in strategic areas in the city to serve as its added source of water during the dry spell,” Royeca stressed.
The BWD official asserted that residents must take advantage of the huge volume of rain being received by the city annually to store a portion of the water instead of the same directly flowing to the different river systems and to the lowlands that is why it is important for them to put up small rain harvesting facilities in their houses or commercial structures for them to have alternative sources of water during the prevalence of the dry months, especially the wrath of the El Nino phenomenon.
According to him, BWD was just so lucky to be the lone water district in the country that was provided a grant from the national government that was used to rehabilitate and increase the holding capacity of the Sto. Tomas rain catchment basin from 550,000 cubic meters to over 700,000 cubic meters of water which is now being used to provide adequate water supply for over 15 percent of the water district’s consumers, especially7 those located in the southern part of the city and the on-going construction of the rain catchment basins in the Busol watershed which will be capable of storing some 50,000 cubic meters of water which could increase up to 100,000 cubic meters once the said basins shall have been completed.\
Royeca pointed that it is also equally important for residents to contribute in efforts to ensure sufficient supply of water for the needs of the rapidly growing population triggered by rapid urbanization.
BWD is currently working to develop more sources of water aside from putting up additional rain harvesting facilities capable of storing substantial volume of water that could be equitably distributed to the consumers when the need arises, especially during the dry months when water supply in the city becomes limited.
Royeca claimed that once that the local legislative body will be able to enact the needed ordinance compelling commercial and residential building owners to put up their own rain harvesting facilities, it will not be difficult for the water district to be providing adequate water supply to the increasing number of consumers because the presence of rain harvesting facilities will allow people to have water supply even during the dry months when the water supply will be reduced during the prevalence of the dry spell.
By Dexter A. See
Banner photo by Don Ray Ramos
