Cebu City Is on the Brink of a Water Crisis. Here's What's Being Done

Fast-growing cities almost always have attendant problems and issues. For Cebu City, one of the biggest issues is water. According to the Metropolitan Cebu Water District, the city has a supply deficit of about 250 million liters per day (MLD). 

This has led the government of Cebu City to undertake measures to help stave off a crisis that could affect a huge majority of the city’s population of over one million.

The water problem could be exacerbated by the El Niño phenomenon that weather forecasters say will affect the country in the coming months.

Both the public and private sectors are spearheading efforts to avert the crisis by adding new water sources to serve the city as well as campaigns for the people to help conserve water.

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According to The Freeman newspaper, the MWCD has commissioned the Lusaran Bulk Water Supply project, which adds 15,000 cubic meters of water per day to the water district. This would be enough to cover the needs of residents of 12 to 13 more barangays in Cebu.

The MWCD also said it has procured an additional 15,000 cubic meters of water per day from JE Hydro, which is expected to be delivered in September.

The MWCD sources most of its water supply from groundwater sources, including the Buhisan, Cotcot, Mananga, and Lusaran Rivers. But there are several challenges to this method, including contamination and over-extraction. So the government is increasingly turning to desalination as a viable water source alternative.

Desalination is essentially the process of removing salt from seawater to make it potable. Although increasingly becoming more popular in other areas around the world, it's cost is prohibitively high, not to mention that it consumes huge amounts of energy. Still, it's a last resort that the local government of Cebu is exploring to address the impending water crisis.

According to the Philippine Information Agency, the MCWD penned a contract in January 2023 for an additional desalinated seawater of 50,000 cubic meters of water per day, which is expected to be delivered within eight months to the injection points of Mandaue and Mambaling.

An additional 5,000 cubic meters of water per day was also penned for Lapu-lapu City. 

In October this year, the city will get an additional 10,000 cubic meters of desalinated water supply daily from Pilipinas Water Resources Inc. (PWRI) for the first year, which is expected to increase to 25,000 cubic meters per day from Mambaling and Mandaue.

Meanwhile, the Gotianun family’s Filinvest Development Corp (FDC) has proposed a project to increase the city’s water supply through desalination. 

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday (July 20), Filinvest said it has met with Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama through Filinvest Hitachi Omni Waterworks (FLOW), a joint venture between FDC and Singapore-based Hitachi Aqua-Tech Engineering that aims to provide desalination, recycled water, and sewage treatment facilities across the Philippines.

FDC said FDC Water Utilities, Inc., a wholly owned unit of FDC power and utilities arm FDC Utilities, Inc., will operate the water desalination and treatment plants that can supply water to over 300,000 Cebuano households. 

Johnny Roxas, president and CEO of Filinvest Hitachi Omni Waterworks (FLOW), assured Rama that FLOW has the experience and expertise in desalination technology, citing its water desalination and treatment plants in Lapu-Lapu City have been in operation for over five years.

In 2021, FLOW delivered 527,000 liters of free potable water to 12,000 Cebuano families in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Odette.