BAGUIO CITY – The city government is currently evaluating the merits of a proposal to rehabilitate the existing Baguio sewerage treatment plant and construct another sewerage treatment plant at Lower Rock Quarry amounting to over P798 million.
Lito R. Maderazo, managing director of Mactan Rock Industries, Inc., said the project will be divided into three phases, the first to improve the operating system of the Baguio sewerage treatment plant to ensure its discharge complies with the new standards at a total cost of P65 million; the second to increase the capacity of the existing sewerage treatment plant from the current 8,600 cubic meters per day to over 28,000 cubic meters per day at a total cost of P415 million, and third, the construction of a new sewerage treatment plant in barangay Lower Rock Quarry with a capacity of at least 7,000 cubic meters per day with the project amounting to P318 million.
He claimed the proposed rehabilitation of the 32-year old Baguio sewerage treatment plant is geared towards improving its capacity to treat the waste water being fed into it to ensure the water it discharges to the Balili River complies with the new standards prescribed under the latest issuances of the environment department, while the construction of the Lower Rock Quarry sewerage treatment plant will help in cleaning the waste water being discharged in the Galiano River.
Mactan Rock Industries, Inc. is one of the proponents for the rehabilitation of the Baguio sewerage treatment plant and the put up of another sewerage treatment plant at Lower Rock Quarry, while the Japan International Cooperating Agency (JICA) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have standing offers to fund the proposed improvement of the city’s sewerage system.
The proponent opines the priority for the city government should be to improve the operation of the existing sewerage treatment plant before working on increase its capacity to accommodate and treat the increasing volume of waste water being directed to it.
The proposed rehabilitation of the existing sewerage treatment plant and the put up of another similar plant at Lower Rock Quarry is aligned with one of the administration’s 15-point collective agenda on the revitalizing the environment and the national government’s overall objective of cleaning the bodies of water from pollutants.
The city government proposed that the public works department fund the construction of the Lower Rock Quarry sewerage treatment plant over the past several years but the same was not prioritized, thus, the present administration decided to look for other funding sources that will guarantee the completion of the priority development project to help improve the state of the city’s environment.
By Dexter A. See
