Mobile water treatment eases thirst in Bohol town

Portable water was the least of the concerns in San Isidro, Bohol, after the Manila Water Company set up a mobile water treatment plant capable of producing 2,000 liters of water an hour.

And they have been sharing water to neighboring towns, easing dependence on bottled water handed by relief groups after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake damaged major infrastructure including water systems.

Manila Water Company pumps water from the Cabansag river in barangay Poblacion, San Isidro. The company uses reverse osmosis to purify the water, which may have been contaminated by chemicals used in farms upstream.

Residents carry containers of various sizes and line up as they collect water for drinking and cooking.

Water tankers also fetch water from the treatment plant and distribute these in remote barangays.

The Cebu provincial government donated 200 liters of diesel to the Manila Water for the portable plant’s operations. San Isidro has a water system run by the local government but its water is still yellowish after the calamity. Also, water connection to many houses have yet to be fixed.

Earlier, Manila Water stayed in Loon, to desalinate seawater before distributing these to the residents. The mobile treatment plant left Loon after tests showed that water in the town’s faucets is already safe, said Dom Emmanuel Dalangin, team leader of Manila Water.

Lydia Bahulay of San Isidro said that before Manila Water came, they used to collect water from a small spring although this was murky and discolored. / Marian Z. Codilla, Senior Reporter