Mall now uses desalinated water: SM expects to save 10% of water bills

The scarcity of water in Cebu coupled with the rising cost of water has led shopping mall SM City Cebu to adopt water desalination technology for its water requirement.

"As a big water consumer, we might as well help the community by not depriving them of water supply. So we are using sea water processed through desalination," said SM City Cebu mall manager Sherry Tuvilla.

The mall has commissioned water technology provider Mactan Rock Industries Inc. (MRII) to provide the mall''s water requirement through desalination process.

According to Tuvilla, the entire mall operation stands to save at least 10 percent of its average monthly water bills, of which the mall is averaging to consume about 40,000 cubic meters a month.

She said SM City Cebu will start to provide desalinated water supply to its tenants in the next few weeks, following the inauguration of the P16 million water desalination facility, set up by MRII at the mall over the weekend.

SM is averaging to pay a monthly bill to Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) about P2 million a month. With the use of desalinated water, she said a bill savings of 10 percent is expected.

With close to 400 mall tenants, SM Cebu is attracting an average of over 100,000 mall goers a day.

Although, part of the water requirement of the entire mall still is supplied by MCWD, Tuvilla said there is a possibility that the mall will be using a 100 percent desalinated water in the future.

She said SM Cebu is alarmed of the water shortage problem in the City, thus it has decided to use an alternative water supply through desalination, utilizing sea water converted to potable water.

Initially, MRII is committing to provide 1,000 cubic-meters a day to the mall, but its facility is capable of providing 1,500 cubic-meters a day.

Water desalination is a technology process to remove water salinity and other water impurities to produce purified and clear water.

The process is considered as an alternative solution for water scarcity problem, especially in the Middle East, and other countries.

In the past, water desalination was not popularly adopted by some big companies and establishments in the Philippines, because of high cost of processing.

However, with local companies such as MRII who has introduced this alternative to big water consumers, such as manufacturing plants, mall establishments, hotels, among others, cost of desalinated water has become competitive, and even cheaper than the conventional water supply.

Tuvilla said other SM shopping malls in Metro Manila, and even in Iloilo, have already adopted this technology, to save on water cost, and helping residential water consumers to avail of water supply from water districts.