Maynilad Water Services Inc. is planning to utilize some of its new modular treatment plants (ModTPs) to purify used water and make it potable.
Maynilad will purify the already-treated used water discharged to rivers by its sewage treatment plants (STPs) instead of drawing raw water from various sources.
“Water is a scarce resource. Given the growing population’s increasing demand for water plus the strain on existing sources due to climate change, we should consider using previously untapped sources including used water to augment supply. There are now reliable and effective treatment technologies that make it a viable option,” said Ramoncito Fernandez, Maynilad president and chief executive officer.
Fernandez said including used water in the supply source options will enhance the Maynilad’s capability to generate more water whenever existing supplies run short.
He said Singapore, South Africa, Namibia and the United States are among those which have adopted this option.
Maynilad said the ModTP technology it uses is from Israel and features a multi-stage process that includes pressurized media filtration, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and chlorine disinfection to convert used water to drinking water.
The company added it is also working with local government units, the Department of Health and other government agencies in ensuring used water treated by Maynilad’s ModTP is potable.
It is also conducting market research to establish social acceptance among consumers of water reuse.
“The treated used water discharged by STPs is actually a more reliable water source than raw river water because it is climate independent; the quality is controlled and less variable. If we use the river directly as source, trash and other pollutants thrown into it by surrounding communities could drastically change the river water’s quality. This could affect the volume output of a ModTP, which has to adjust its treatment parameters with sudden shifts in the raw water quality,” said Roel Espiritu, Maynilad head of quality, sustainability and resiliency, in a statement.
He that at present, Maynilad treats raw water from Laguna Lake in a similar way as it uses a sewage treatment method for initial purification of the lake water before it passes through several more treatment processes for full conversion to drinking water.
