West zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services Inc. said Tuesday it plans to tap used water as an alternative raw water supply source for drinking.
The water company said in a briefing the initiative would benchmark the Philippines with Namibia in Southern Africa and Singapore in Asia as the first water company in the Philippines to produce drinkable reused water.
The company will utilize one of its new modular treatment plants to convert treated used water into potable supply called “new water.” These plants utilize a treatment technology from Israel—a known global leader in water innovation.
It said the used water from households collected through its conveyance system will pass through a sewage treatment plant where it will undergo a series of treatment processes to become “treated used water.”
The company said this meets the ambient water and general effluent standards of 2021 set by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The “treated used water” discharged by the STP will pass through a ModTP where it will be further purified. The ModTP’s multi-stage treatment process includes pressurized media filtration, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and chlorine disinfection.
Maynilad said the output from this process is called new water—a supply that meets the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water, which is among the more stringent drinking water standards in the world.
It said for the initial implementation, Maynilad would produce around 10 million liters per day of new water through a ModTP that will source “treated used water” from the company’s STP in Parañaque City.
The used treated water will be fed into the distribution system where it will blend with the standard drinking water produced by Maynilad’s La Mesa Treatment Plants.
The blended supply will be conveyed to Barangays San Dionisio and San Isidro in Parañaque City, the areas nearest to the ModTP location. Some 38,700 customers in these barangays will benefit from the additional supply.
Maynilad said that by including used water in its alternative raw water source options, it would have enhanced capability to produce more water.
The company said it is working with the Department of Health, DENR, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and the Parañaque City government health office to ensure that new water is potable. The company is also conducting a series of social acceptability tests of drinkable reused water among consumers.