Taysan, Batangas—Water is a precious and limited resource and needs to be managed well.
With this in mind, the Republic Cement Batangas Plant continues to do rainwater harvesting and has done so since 2015 for 100% of its domestic and industrial water consumption requirements or about 328,150 cu.m. of water per year.
The Batangas Plant has eliminated its groundwater demand, leaving the scarce groundwater resources for its neighboring communities and farmers.
Rainwater harvesting is the collection and storage of rainwater in natural resources or artificially designed resources to prevent runoff and avoid scarcity of water, especially during the dry months.
The Batangas Plant has three major collection ponds that collect rainwater, namely RepubLake, the Pozzolan Pond, and the East Shale Pond, which is the largest among the three.
The severe drought due to El Niño in 2014, which almost shut down the cement plant, was the driving force for this initiative, while at the same time creating cost savings due to reduced water bills from the local water utilities.
Additionally, instead of just being backfilled at the end of quarry life, the reservoirs can now be part of the final mine rehabilitation plan and stakeholders may benefit from these new water sources during summer months.
This is a very good example of how Republic Cement operates to assure its customers of consistent supply of good quality products, while taking good care of the environment in the process.
The Mine Rehabilitation and Fund Committee of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the local government of Taysan have recognized the Batangas Plant’s water conservation efforts through rainwater collection.