Water project sidetracked by financial woes

A proposed water desalination plant for central Saipan is off again, bogged down by high costs and little support from residents and government officials worried over the economic crisis besetting the island.

The Commonwealth Utilities Corporation on Friday scrapped its plan to contract another company to produce potable water from the sea in a highly effective, but costly process viewed as last hope by Saipan residents perennially hit by empty faucets.

A task force created by the government-utility firm called for the cancellation in view of failure to source funding for the project that has been in the planning board for the last four years.

CUC board director Benjamin A. Sablan, who heads the task force, said the decision followed increasing efforts to seek others ways to improve the water system on the island.

“It’s pretty obvious that with the economic crisis, it’s hard to undertake this kind of project,” he told a board meeting held last Friday.

Under the earlier proposal, the desalination facility would be built at a cost of $10 million financed by Earth Tech, a US water and technology and engineering firm, which would also sell about three million gallons of processed water to CUC everyday for $5 million each year for the next 20 years.

To meet the financial obligations, CUC had recommended a cost-sharing agreement with customers who would have to pay 10 times more than their current water billings — a move opposed by many island residents.

According to Sablan, the utility corporation should abandon the initial request for proposals on the project issued four years ago during the previous administration as the technology may have changed and the cost reduced.

“Considering the current economic situation, coupled with recent contractual mistakes at other government agencies, it is simply good business to cancel that old desalination bid and move to enhance an overall water quality program for Saipan,” he said in a statement.

But Sablan stressed the desalination plant might be revived in the future after measures to be adopted by CUC fail to find water sources for Saipan, such as groundwater exploration at Mt. Tapochau.

Although the proposed water project was intended for Garapan, Gualo Rai, Chinatown and other dry villages in central Saipan, CUC has found residents in these areas do not support a higher utility rate and instead, recommend other ways to improve the existing water system.

Its decision to suspend the project last Friday is not the first time it had proposed scrapping the original plan.

In July last year, Executive Director Timothy P. Villagomez prodded the board to abandon it due to the funding problem as most residents were not ready to share the burden of building a desal plant despite assurances from the legislature they would subsidize its costs.