MANILA — Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) administrator Reynaldo Velasco cited San Miguel Corp. (SMC), the country’s largest conglomerate, for heeding the call of the World Health Organization (WHO) to improve the collection and treatment of wastewater and safely reuse it.
Earlier, Ramon S. Ang, SMC president, announced that the program, dubbed as “Project 50X2025”, had already saved four billion liters of water, equivalent to the daily use of about 137,000 households a year following the project’s launch.
The program is also aimed at reducing water consumption by 50 percent by the year 2025.
“It is laudable that among its future goals would be to reduce its operational water use by 50 percent across its business, employing measures that include water recycling, conservation and rainwater harvesting to meet its target by 2025,” Velasco said.
Coinciding with World Water Day last year, SMC began to reduce its water consumption by 14 percent across its food, beverage, packaging, power, fuels and petrochemicals, and infrastructure businesses.
Ang also said that the first year of implementing the project has been about instilling a culture of conservation among employees, and improving water systems and processes, where possible.
“From now through 2020, our goal is to cut as much as we can by improving water management, utilizing rainwater harvesting, and increasing the amount of water we recycle and re-use,” he added.
Ang said the company is also studying new water technologies that it could invest in, after 2020, to fully realize its ambitious 2025 goal.
No effort is too small
In addition, part of the long-term sustainability project is to stop the usage and production of plastic bottled water to help reduce the plastic waste.
SMC is expected to completely get rid of this business in the middle of the year, when excess inventory in the market would have completely depleted.
“No effort is too small. In many of our facilities, we’ve fitted things like pre-rinse spray taps and low-flush toilets or percussive taps. We regularly monitor for leaks and we’re educating our employees on the importance of conservation. We’re looking to building cisterns and systems to collect rainwater,” Ang added.
Meanwhile, Velasco also lauded the Luzon Clean Water Development Corp., a consortium of San Miguel Holdings and K-Water Resources Corp., for being ahead of schedule in its project implementation in the North Zone sector.
The Luzon Clean Water is the third MWSS concessionaire. It is undertaking the Bulacan Bulk Water Supply Project, which will provide safe and reliable water supply to some 541,000 households in 24 water districts or 569 barangays in Bulacan, the north zone—at the lowest cost per cubic meter anywhere in the country.
The project is proceeding ahead of schedule with the expected completion of the first phase, amounting to PHP24.4 billion in October. (PNA)
