By Kalinga Seneviratne*

LILOAN, Philippines, Nov 17 (IPS/AMIC) - This municipality of 80,000 people living in 14 ‘barangay’ or villages has a spectacular five-kilometre beach that is popular with beachgoers. During weekends, they come in droves from Cebu City, just a 30-minute drive away.

But wastewater discharged to the sea from markets and coastal households in Liloan here in the central Philippine province of Cebu created a health scare several years ago, prompting tourists to stay away. This prompted then Liloan mayor Maria Sevilla to seek financing from the Asian Development Fund of the Asian Development Bank (AsDB) for a pilot wastewater treatment plant.

"There is an extensive drainage system in our communities, but the end of it goes straight into the sea because it is very costly to build a centralised wastewater treatment facility," said Jesselito Baring, a local engineer who helped design and install the plant.

"Unlike conventional systems that have extensive power requirements, we can save as much as 80 percent (in electricity cost) using these plants. They need only about 7,000 pesos (162 U.S. dollars) a month to run this system," said Baring.

The facility treats wastewater from drains and toilets in the market, which has about 100 vendors, and 200 coastal households.

Andreas Koenig, a consultant for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said the system uses a biological treatment process. Above the wastewater tanks are an array of discs, two metres in diameter, that rotate slowly. These are alternately exposed to the air and then submerged into the water. The discs contain bacteria that eat up the contaminants.

The technology has been available in Europe for some time and was modified to suit local conditions. It is comparatively inexpensive to build and operate, compared to larger centralised wastewater treatment facilities usually built in large cities. It costs about 46,000 dollars to build such a facility.

The Liloan Community Multipurpose Cooperative (LCMPC) maintains the system, funding for which comes from the two-peso (.04 cents) fee for the use of the market toilets.

Marlyn Icot, cooperative treasurer, said they collect about 9,000 pesos (204 dollars) a month. They pay 3,000 pesos (68 dollars) to the woman who collects the money and keeps the toilet clean. Electricity costs about 7,000 pesos (159 dollars) and an additional 1,000 pesos (22.7 dollars) is needed for other supplies.

"Sometimes we have to stop operating the unit to save on electricity," complained Icot. "This facility is very useful to the community. It created economic opportunities and we hope the (local) government will give (financial) aid to us so we could continue operations."

Asked why the municipality could not help the cooperative, current Liloan mayor Duke D Frasco said those in charge of the treatment plant were not meeting their end of the bargain -- collecting money from the community.

Romulo Jugalbot, LCMPC vice-chairman, said they have already told the mayor that fees from the public toilets alone cannot sustain the plant’s operations. The cooperative plans to submit a resolution asking the local government to enact an ordinance that would allow the cooperative to collect money from other community members, he added.

"The households here don’t help sustain it, that’s why we want the LGU to pass an ordinance so that they will be required to support the project," said Jugalbot.

Financial problems notwithstanding, the treatment plant has proven effective since it started operating in November 2005. Water quality in the ocean has improved -- studies done by environmental authorities show a reduced count of coliform cells. (High coliform count indicates faecal contamination of water.)

On Oct. 8, the municipality of Liloan and the AsDB signed an agreement to build a second wastewater treatment plant.

Koenig said the financial problem encountered in the pilot plant is a "major issue that would need to be looked at" in the second treatment facility. "Mandatory fees may need to be collected from all those who are connected (to the facility). Another option could be for the LGU to partially shoulder the electricity bill," Koenig said.

Market administrator Ricky Hayag agreed that the municipality needed to chip in. "If you left it to the municipality to help fund this (pilot plant), it would never have been built because of the large money needed for the project," he said. "But now that it has been built, I’m pushing that the municipality set aside a certain amount as subsidy to the operation of water treatment facility."

Frasco said the facility is essential for the municipality’s development. "Every Saturday and Sunday, beachgoers come here from the city and no one will want to swim in a dirty ocean," he noted. "If we don’t clean the water before it goes into the sea, it will harm our tourism potential."

Residents of the municipality are hoping that even though it was the previous mayor who was instrumental in getting AsDB funding to build the first facility, Frasco – who defeated Sevilla during the elections in May – would give as much emphasis to the environment and will pass the necessary law to help sustain the facility.

Said Jugalbot: "The market vendors don’t want to be alone in sustaining this facility."

(*This story is being distributed by IPS Asia-Pacific under a communication agreement with the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre, in Singapore, which produced it.)

(END/2007)