BAUKO, Mountain Province – Mayor Abraham B. Akilit disclosed the town’s ceramic filter facility situated in barangay Bila will be fully operational next month after the supplier shall have delivered all the required units of equipment and other materials to allow the commercial production of clay filters.
The town’s ceraminc filter project was one of the 14 community-based science and technology projects that was accessed by the municipal government from the Cordillera office of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-CAR) among other agencies.
“It is one way of planting the seeds for the future generations of Bauko residents. WE must start now and let the future generations reap the fruits of our labor,” Mayor Akilit stressed.
It can be recalled that the DOST-Industrial Technology Development Institute embarked on a project to produce ceramic water for water filtration system to address the increasing number of households with no access to potable water and will help in achieving the Philippine Millennium Development Goal which is to increase the proportion of operation with access to potable water from 82.9 percent to 86.6 percent in 2016.
Clay resources and the inherent skills of molding clay of the people of barangay Bila had supplied the province with cooking pots and water jars and pottery is an age-old industry of the place.
Dr. Julius Caesar V. Sicat, DOST-CAR regional director, said the implementation of the ceramic water filter project in barangay Bila would integrate all the skills learned, the technologies adopted, systems, and linkages established into a viable pottery enterprise.
Sicat explained the Bauko municipal government was identified as the technology adoptor which in turn identified an area to establish the production center of the low-cost ceramic filter that would provide increased access of the people to potable water, especially during times of calamities.
According to Sicat, the clay samples analysed from the area passed the preliminary formation test conducted by the agency two years ago.
DOST central office provided a total of P2.28 million with its regional office sharing P90,000 while the Bauko municipal government infused P2.35 million for the realization of the project aside from the 2,154=square meter private lot donated by Mayor Akilit for the realization of the noble project.
Other agencies that infused their contributions for the project include the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Department of Labor and Employment among others wile beneficiaries of the project include the municipal government and the Bila potters’ association.
By Dexter A. See
