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DesalData Weekly - April 20th, 2016

Posted 22 April, 2016 by Mandy

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In early April, Cebu City’s water crisis led to the declaration of a state of emergency.  Credit: The Big Wobble

In the Philippines, two Christian groups have offered desalination equipment to the Cebu Provincial Government, home to the country’s “second city.”[1]  Cebu, which was Spain’s first Filipino settlement in the sixteenth century, is the country’s second most populous metropolitan area after Metro Manila.  The desalination facilities, made by Operation Blessing Foundation Philippines and The Church of the Latter-Day Saints, will alleviate some of the intensive water shortages that plague the region.  As reported in CNN, on April 13, the Cebu City Council adopted recommendations of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.  The drought has adversely affected roughly 98 percent of the water supplies in the region’s barangays (i.e. villages).  It is expected to last through June.[2]

 

Baltazar Tribunalo, head of the Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, has reported that the equipment could produce 4,383 cubic metres of water per year.  Tribunalo also stated that the desalination facilities would be located in Kinatarcan Island (25 kilometres off the west coast of Cebu Island) and Doong Island (to the southwest).[3]  To address the immediate crisis, the water utility firm Cebu Water District has purchased desalinated water “as additional supply” for residents; but the firm has had at least 19,000 cubic metres of water deficit since April 6, when its ground water sources failed to supply any water.[4]

 

 

The Natural Resources Defense Council has released an “issue brief” discussing seawater desalination and brackish desalination in California.[5]  As reported in the issue, the Golden State has 23 brackish groundwater desalination plants (with a combined annual capacity of 172,200,000 cubic metres per year), and 12 existing seawater desalination plants (with a combined annual capacity of 77,510,000 cubic metres per year).

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The NRDC’s figure, entitled “Preferred Prioritization of California Water Resources”

The NRDC report—echoing recent activities of Californian environmental groups—issued several recommendations “as a policy guidance tool.”  The first recommendation urges that desalination should be used “as a last resort and only developed after all cost-effective water resources—such as conservation, efficiency, stormwater capture, and recycling efforts—have been implemented.”[6]   The report cites the cost effective, energy efficient, and environmentally friendly advantages of these alternative options. 

For those who must rely on desalination to meet their water demands, the second and third recommendations promote the use of “renewably powered groundwater desalination” over “more damaging conventional brackish surface water or seawater desalination facilities.”  The report concludes with the suggestion that these desalination facilities “should be designed to minimize energy use, impacts on the electric grid, and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, and sited to mitigate adverse effects to sensitive marine and estuarine environments.”[7]

The NRDC co-authored the paper in alliance with several non-profit environmental groups: California Coast Protection Network, Heal the Bay, the Nature Conservancy, the California Coastkeeper Alliance, the Orange County Coastkeeper, and Surfrider.

 

Meanwhile, a new, 30-year agreement between The Carlsbad Municipal Water District and the San Diego Water Authority assures an additional supply of water for the recently finished $1 billion Carlsbad Desalination Plant.[8]  San Diego receives approximately 85 percent of its water supply from the district.  According to the agreement, the water district will purchase an additional 3,084,000 cubic metres of water per year; and it will pay $1.95 per cubic metre ($2,400 per acre-foot).  The district is able to purchase more than the allotted, annual supply of 3,084,000 cubic metres if supplies permit.  The great portion of the city’s water supply – 90 percent – is imported water that currently costs $1.17 per cubic metre ($1,440 per acre-foot).

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Carlsbad Desalination Plant  Credit: Poseidon Water

 

 

 

[1] “2 Groups Offer Desalination Machines to Cebu,” The Manila Times, April 20, 2016, <http://www.manilatimes.net/2-groups-offer-desalination-machines-to-cebu/256721/> accessed April 19, 2016

[2] Dale Israel, “Entire Cebu Province Under State of Calamity due to Drought,” CNN Philippines, April 13, 2016, <http://cnnphilippines.com/regional/2016/04/13/Entire-Cebu-province-state-of-calamity-drought.html> accessed April 19, 2016.

[3] “2 Groups Offer Desalination Machines to Cebu.”

[4] Israel, “Entire Cebu Province Under State of Calamity due to Drought.”

[5] Sierra Martinez and Kala Viswanathan, “Proceed with Caution: California's Droughts and Desalination in Context,” Natural Resources Defense Council, March 28, 2016, <https://www.nrdc.org/resources/proceed-caution-californias-droughts-and-desalination-context>.  See also: Kala Visawanathan, “Desalination: The Last Resort,” Natural Resources Defense Council, April 4, 2016, < https://www.nrdc.org/experts/kala-viswanathan/desalination-last-resort> accessed April 19, 2016.

[6] Martinez and Viswanathan, “Proceed with Caution.”

[7] Ibid.

[8] Thomas Arnold, “More Water Going to Carlsbad from Desalination Plant,” Seaside Courier, April 18, 2016, <http://www.seasidecourier.com/news/more-water-going-to-carlsbad-from-desalination-plant/article_5a9b5f64-058b-11e6-851a-77ffcb5a768d.html> accessed April 19, 2016.

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