CEBU CITY, March 26 (PNA) — The Japanese government is set to extend a grant of 1.165 billion yen or over half a billion pesos to improve Metro Cebu’s water supply, a Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) official said.
Ernie Delco, MCWD assistant manager for operations, said the grant will be coursed through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Delco said the grant will be used to set up a supervisory control and data acquisition (Scada) system that will make water distribution in MCWD’s franchise area more efficient.
He said the Scada will enable the MCWD to get real-time data on water pressure and reservoir supply and allow MCWD to remotely switch on or off pumps and close or open valves.
Delco said the Scada system will also help MCWD to promptly detect and fix leaks, thereby reducing its wastage or non-revenue water (NRW).
The current NRW rate of MCWD is about 25 percent or 50,000 cubic meters out of its total daily production of about 200,000 cubic meters.
Delco said the project is expected to become operational in the latter part of 2015 or early 2016.
Delco said the grant still needs final approval by the governments of the Philippines and Japan.
He said the project came as a result of MCWD’s “sister utility” relations with the Yokohama Waterworks Bureau of Japan. (PNA)