Committee tackles funding for water desalination plant

The Commonwealth Utilities Corporation has formed a special committee to tackle the proposed water desalination plant on Saipan in an effort to seek possible solution to the financial setback that has dogged the critical project in the last two years.

Former CUC board chairman Benjamin A. Sablan heads the group which also includes two other Saipan representatives to the utility board Rosario M. Elameto and Jesus T. Guerrero.

“I am busy running my company, but this one job I want, one job I am honored to accept,” Sablan said in a statement after being appointed by CUC Chairman John S. Dela Cruz.

The panel is expected to review materials and documents as well as comments from residents who have voiced out their opinions on the costly project during two previous public hearings.

The government-owned utility firm is hoping to hold more consultation in the next few weeks before making a final decision on the fate of the project which is viewed as solution to perennial water shortage in central Saipan.

Many villagers have frowned on the cost-sharing scheme being proposed by CUC in which they will have to pay 10 times more than their present water bills to finance the desalination facility.

While legislators have pledged to subsidize low-income families to assist them in paying their bills, utility officials have flipped-flopped on the project due to absence of clear support from both its customers and government officials.

The desalination plant, which will process potable water from the surrounding ocean, is being offered as solution to acute water problems facing Garapan, Gualo Rai and China Town, that have been aggravated in recent months by the drought triggered by the El Nino weather phenomenon.

CUC is considering a proposal from Earth Tech, a U.S. water technology and engineering firm, to build and operate the plant for an initial cost of $10 million.

In exchange, the utility is obliged to purchase some three millions gallons of water everyday at a cost of $5 million each year for the next 10 years.

Utility officials maintain the cost is expensive and customers will have to share the burden in meeting the financial obligations. So far, less than a hundred of the estimated 2,300 CUC customers have responded to the CUC survey, according to the statement.