The CNMI will be receiving close to $21 million a year for five years until 2026 through funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that will go to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s water and wastewater projects, moving CUC a step closer to its goal of achieving 24-hour \u201cpalatable\u201d drinking water on Saipan.<\/p>\n
CUC executive director Gary Camacho disclosed this in a brief interview Wednesday, during which he also said that achieving 24-hour drinking water on Saipan has been a goal of CUC for many years now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very excited that it looks like the EPA will continue to support and increase the funding source, potentially, for our water [and] wastewater programs over the next five years. \u2026That really should give us much closer or the ability to achieve 24-hour palatable drinking water on the island of Saipan in that period,\u201d said Camacho. \u201cIt\u2019s been an effort by many people over many years, and it looks like, finally, that we\u2019re starting to see the opportunity for these goals to [come to] fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Separately, in a Dec. 5, 2021, news release on his official website, Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) announced that the first-year allotment of water and sewer funding for the CNMI from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is $20,794,000. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe IIJA will provide this funding, particularly aimed at historically underserved communities, annually for five years, through 2026,\u201d Sablan wrote.<\/p>\n
This funding is in addition to Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act funding that CUC receives from the U.S. Congress yearly.<\/p>\n
Sablan further disclosed in his release that 24-hour water for \u201cvirtually all Marianas households\u201d was achieved through funding formula changes he advocated for in 2010.<\/p>\n
Next up for the CNMI? Water that is not only \u201cpotable\u201d but also \u201cpalatable,\u201d wrote Sablan. \u201cThat means not only free of bacteria and other harmful substances, but clear and good tasting right out of the tap. Now we have the money to reach this goal,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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