Camarines Sur water distributor wins top USAID award for water, sanitation innovation

INQUIRER STOCK PHOTO A faucet with a water drop.

MANILA, Philippines — Five local creations won awards in a competition seeking to generate solutions, support improvements, and expand innovations in the country’s water and sanitation sector.

Camarines Sur’s Libmanan Water District won the grand prize in the Philippine Water Challenge (PhlWC) inaugural organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation, Manila Water Co. Inc., and Maynilad Water Services Inc.

Libmanan Water District created the Low-Cost Digitization and Automation Solution in the Management of Water Distribution System which uses an electronic device to record both water volume and water pressure.

The solution will enable water utilities to understand their operations in real-time with automated collection and transmission of data to their central system.

Four other local creations bagged awards including the following:

• Upgrading access to affordable clean water and a holistic approach to improving the lives of disadvantaged urban communities (Tubig at Pag-Asa/EV Water and Life)
• A customizable and reusable zeolite water filter for low-resource settings (ADAM Tech)
• A portable combined water purification and sterilization machine (Ozone Dynamic Ventures)
• A technology that converts wastewater to fertilizer (De La Salle University-Araneta)

The grand prize winner took home P250,000 while other awardees received a cash grant of at least Php100,000. The winners will also receive mentoring sessions and networking support.

“Our collective effort to realize the Philippine Water Challenge demonstrates how powerful partnership is in mobilizing citizen support for solving today’s water security challenges,” USAID Philippines Environment Chief John Edgar said.

“Our partnership started a culture and consciousness for innovation and, more importantly, established a network of innovators and solution-seekers,” he added.

Meanwhile, National Economic and Development Authority Assistant Secretary Roderick Planta expressed hopes that the innovations can be expanded to reach more communities in a sustainable manner.

“Let us pitch innovative ideas and solutions to angel investors and match them with startups.  I call on the continued support of our private sector partners and other groups for incubation and commercial development,” Planta said.

PhlWC will run annually and launch its second competition in July 2022.

EDV