{"id":225490,"date":"2016-04-15T06:00:02","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T20:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=225490"},"modified":"2016-04-15T06:00:02","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T20:00:02","slug":"lawmaker-worried-cnmi-water-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/lawmaker-worried-cnmi-water-situation\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmaker worried about CNMI water situation"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_225494\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-225494\" style=\"width: 256px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Paul-Manglona-2008-256x300.jpg\" alt=\"Manglona\" width=\"256\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-225494\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-225494\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Manglona<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Sen. Paul A. Manglona (Ind-Rota) said problems with water in the CNMI would become even greater as the community expands.<\/p>\n<p>He said the old water system could no longer support such need for what would eventually turn into a scarce source especially in the business center of Saipan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe islands would continue running into long dry season while its water is drawn from shallow water wells that depletes quickly turning into a hardship for families all over,\u201d Manglona said. <\/p>\n<p>He noted that a preliminary study by a certain firm says, \u201cTidal fluctuations, seawater intrusion, and excessive pumping has resulted in a water supply of decreased quality and increasing salinity due to the capture of brackish water from this fickle and increasingly unreliable groundwater resource.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSaipan, the business center, needs about 12 million gallons of water per day its availability more than likely heading into scarcity land as major projects are emplaced\u201d, he pointed out. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s an option to resolve the growing water scarcity issue in what\u2019s known as \u2018underground dam\u2019 that requires study and analysis to determine if there\u2019s sufficient water streams to collect that would feed and refill water storage facilities in at least three areas on the island,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe option available would require a lot of money and this is where the NMI could appeal for technical and financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Interior for help,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an issue that requires timely decision from leadership given that the project necessarily goes through time-consuming process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe should be mindful in the sense that the island community constantly expands and the need for water in both residential and private industries increases by leaps and bounds,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the issue intensifies because we aren\u2019t sure how to dispose of it then any and all planned development and growth would equally be compromised.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cThe time to step up to the plate is right here and now before we turn victims of our own indecision\u201d, Manglona said.<\/p>\n<p>Reportedly, the island loses 70 percent of its water, however, efforts in recent past to fix and replace water pipes in the villages emplaced after the war. \u201cThis is the time to assist the utility agency meet this need in addition to a power system that may have reached its capacity,\u201d Manglona said. (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Paul A. Manglona (Ind-Rota) said problems with water in the CNMI would become even&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":225494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[54,56,44,244],"class_list":["post-225490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-agency","tag-business-3","tag-study","tag-utility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}