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CUC makes water conservation campaign
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Posted on Dec 22 1998
Due to depleting water resources brought about by the severe drought in the Northern Marianas, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is raising public awareness on the need for conservation and waste prevention.
The campaign is an offshoot of the Water Education for Teachers or WET launched early this year to address the impact of El Nino, the worldwide weather phenomenon responsible for the long dry season on the island.
Pamela Mathis, CUC information officer and lead coordinator of the project, said they are stepping up the efforts to instill measures that will conserve water amid the expected drop in the amount of rainfall in the next few months.
The island experienced an average of 39.8 inches of rain for the year, less than half of the normal level, according to records of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Because of the low rainfall amount, water sources have been strained, particularly those wells and catchment tanks that provide most of the supply to residential and commercial consumers.
CUC is urging the public to install tanks to catch rainwater to lessen the pressure on groundwater wells that have dried up and become more salty in recent months.
“If we continue to pump water at the current rate, we are only pushing the salty water closer to the people,” Mathis said in an interview.
She also stressed the need to fix leaking pipes to prevent waste of water, saying that a CUC detection team is going around to check houses and commercial establishments.
At least three million gallons of water are lost everyday because of the leaks, Mathis said.
In 1999, CUC will teach the public on how to build a tank and other conservation measures to make wise use of the water resources which are getting scarcer everyday.
“Unless something happens, El Nino is nothing,” Mathis said.
