Saipan Ice: Delivering safe drinking water

Hundreds of babies the world over die each day of diarrhea, a disease commonly caused by poor sanitation and consumption of contaminated drinking water.

Saipan is one island fortunate enough to have been spared from the wrath of this peculiar, and sometimes fatal, intestinal disorder, thanks to one private company that pioneered water purification process in the Northern Marianas.

The value of water in the sustenance of life is what drives Saipan Ice Incorporated to continue carrying out its commitment to provide the Northern Marianas with pure and clean drinking water, that was almost far from reality given the island’s salty ground water.

Now entering its 16th year, the company has grown from a mere ice plant in 1984 to the biggest private sector player in the delivery of safe drinking water to different households and commercial establishments throughout the island.

According to Anthony Pellegrino, president of the Pelley Group which owns and operates Saipan Ice, the company enjoys between 60 percent and 70 percent of the total market share on Saipan.

Although a slight drop in sales was recorded due to the closure of some restaurants to which Saipan Ice delivers drinking water, Mr. Pellegrino maintains an optimistic view of the local market.

“Everybody drinks water and everybody needs safe and pure drinking water. As long as this is the case, we will continue to serve the community which helped us come this far,” he says.

Asked about the secret of a successful business that has survived several economic downturns, Mr. Pellegrino says Saipan Ice provides an excellent quality of drinking water complimented by an outstanding service to its clientele.

Vice president Ador Songcuan adds the Division of Environmental Quality regularly collects water samples from the company’s purified water to check the presence of any impurities and that Saipan Ice has never been cited since its inception 16 years ago.

“This is how we assure our customers that they get the best quality drinking water. It is safe primarily because it is pure and clean,” he says, adding that Saipan Ice has adopted its own quality control system in further moves to provide only the purest water to thousands of households on the island.

Mr. Songcuan says the company checks the water quality through sampling once every week while off-site water tanks, normally located in supermarkets around the island, are cleansed once every three months.

Saipan Ice will not just take any risks as far as the safety of its drinking water is concerned. And why would the company risk the health of its customers when the World Health Organization reports that an estimated 80 percent of all diseases and over one-third of deaths in developing countries are water-related.

For such cases, Mr. Songcuan says disinfection is the key word. Waterborne diseases drop very sharply to a low value when adequate levels of disinfection are maintained.

This has been proven by findings by the World Health Organization which says that disinfection is the most important step in the treatment of water for public supply. It is by far the safest way to prevent outbreaks of cholera, typhoid fever or hepatitis.

With a high population of children and elderly, CNMI is at a higher risk for outbreaks of waterborne diseases. This is where Saipan Ice comes in with its technology of maintaining a clean drinking water.

During a tour around the company’s water purification plant at Lower Base, Mr. Songcuan says Saipan Ice has its own two deep-wells and a rainwater catchment facilities, although it also sources a portion of its water from the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation.

The company’s two water catchment tanks can store up to 80,000 gallons of water. Saipan Ice has an impressive process of purifying the water it delivers to several households on the island.

From either of the three sources, the water passes through ultra violet or radiation treatment before it goes through a machine with carbon filters which gatekeeps impurities, bacteria and smell.

To better ensure that the water has been purified and free from contaminants, it passes through another stage called reverse osmosis which can treat up to 90,000 gallons of water everyday.

Saipan Ice is also proud of its ozonator facility which provides the last water treatment stage. This phase provides a hundred percent assurance that the water has been completely freed from contaminants and impurities.

But what is a pure and clean drinking water if the containers are not? For Saipan Ice, there is no let up in quality control. The bottle cleansing process involves three stages to make sure everything is properly handled.

The company’s automatic bottling machine washes, rinses and steams plastic containers where the water is stored. Pure water comes in a clean, disinfected container.

Also, Saipan Ice has acquired a new automatic bottling equipment that can process up to 350 bottles per hour. The company also manufactures its own one-gallon bottles, according to Mr. Pellegrino.

Mr. Songcuan also mentioned that Saipan Ice is now in the process of installing an automatic ice bagging system, which is expected to be in full operation in the next two weeks.

Only one thing spells the success of Saipan Ice, Inc.–quality.