Senator backs water project

The chair of the Senate committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications has thrown fresh support behind a proposed water desalination plant on Saipan, saying the $100 million project may provide an end to perennial water shortages on the island.

According to Sen. Thomas P. Villagomez, he also favors a plan by the legislature to subsidize the alternative water source to begin project construction as soon as possible.

The plant, to be built at a cost of $10 million by a private engineering firm and an additional $5 million each year for its operations, has come through rough sailing in the last two years largely due to financing problem.

Although the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation has proposed a cost-sharing agreement to push the project, some people have balked at spending more than 10 times their current water bills just to be able to fund it in the next 20 years.

“If we can work it out with CUC… an individual should be considered (for a government subsidy),” Villagomez said in an interview, adding that he would support a financing scheme being proposed in the House of Representatives.

The senator is among several legislators who have been prodding the government-owned utility firm to expedite the project in the wake of acute water shortages on some parts of Saipan.

The situation has even become more critical following the onset of El Nino weather phenomenon last year that has plunged the Northern Marianas into long draught season.

Several wells in the villages in central Saipan are quickly drying up due to low rainfall level in recent months, forcing residential houses and commercial establishments to buy from water companies for their daily supply.

Legislators from Precinct 3 and some residents are pinning their hope to the desalination project seen as a long-term solution to serious water shortages on Garapan, Gualo Rai and China Town.

“If we don’t have any new source of water, where are we going to get our supply? Are we going to pay for imported water?” Villagomez explained. “The desal plant should be in the planning stage now and should address the problem.”

CUC Executive Director Timothy P. Villagomez earlier has asked the utility board to abandon the project following failure to draw clear support from residents and legislature on a financial scheme to pay the costly operations.

Some residents, however, have expressed willingness to be burdened with additional expenditures in what could be a sign of frustration over the water situation on Saipan.