Marinduque welcomes water desalination project

MANILA, Philippines — The Marinduque Water District recently conducted an unsolicited proposal via a Swiss challenge for a contract to convert sea or raw water into 29,200 cubic meters of potable fresh water daily to meet the province’s demand for clean water.

The Swiss challenge concluded on January 25 with main proponents, Peak Off-Grid, Innovations & Solutions Inc., a renewable energy and water desalination developer, winning the contract.

The almost P3-billion project aims to supply the 240,000 inhabitants of Marinduque with an uninterruptible supply of potable water using Finnish desalination technology running on solar power.

The project aims to alleviate the province’s freshwater resources from further stress by opening a new avenue of drinkable sources of water such as the inexhaustible sea.

It involves the construction of distributed desalination facilities to convert raw seawater into fresh potable water safe for drinking and other household needs as well as for irrigation.

The project combines solar desalination technologies with freshwater management, efficient storage facilities, and rainwater harvesting to boost the supply chain.

In addition to providing freshwater, the project is expected to provide jobs to the locals given the area of coverage and size of the project.

The awarding ceremony for the contract, held on March 10 at the Marco Polo Hotel Ortigas, was attended by Marinduque Gov. Presbitero Velasco Jr, Rep. Lord Allan Velasco and Finnish Ambassador to the Philippines Juha Markus Pyykkö.