Commercial desalination plant seen to improve Mactan water supply
Map of Cebu province
CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Residents of Mactan Island in Cebu province will become water-sufficient by early next year as the P2-billion Cordova Desalination Plant (CDP), the first in the country to use the technology to convert seawater into potable water on a large scale, will start its commercial operation.
Vivant Corp., the proponent of the project, and its subsidiary Isla Mactan Cordova Corp. (IMCC), recently unveiled its newly installed desalination machines, which use the state-of-the-art seawater reverse osmosis technology, inside its facility in Barangays Buagsong and Catarman in the town of Cordova.
Mactan Island, comprised of Lapu-Lapu City and Cordova, currently gets its water supply from mainland Cebu through the distribution system of the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD).
The CDP has a production capacity of 20 million liters a day (MLD) or 20,000 cubic meters a day, which can meet the demands of Mactan Island, home to one of the country’s biggest export processing zone, some world-renowned hotels and resorts, and Mactan-Cebu International Airport, the country’s busiest international air gateway outside of Metro Manila.
The capacity of CDP is expendable to 50 MLD, said IMCC president and CEO Jess Anthony Garcia, in his speech during the equipment installation ceremony at the plant site on Thursday.
The project is a joint venture between IMCC and MCWD, the latter being the water supplier of the cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu, Mandaue, and Talisay, and the municipalities of Compostela, Liloan, Consolacion, and Cordova.
