By Tonette T. Orejas for PNN
ARAYAT, Pampanga—Many of the 2,633 residents living at the foothills of Mt. Arayat here have been saving ₱70 daily by getting their supplies of free purified water starting April, a village official said.
“My neighbors and I are able to buy more food because we do not buy [bottled water by the gallons] anymore,” Lorena Dela Paz said as she tended to her sari-sari store. In supermarkets, an 8-liter bottle of distilled water costs between ₱70 and ₱80.
The free water came after the provincial government installed a solar-powered modern filtration system beside “Tangki (water tank)” on Purok Tres. It’s actually a large stone pool where natural spring water had cascaded and flowed non-stop for decades, said Froilan Soriano, barangay captain of San Juan Baño.
Long-time residents have renamed the facility Maria Sinukuan Purified Water System, which the Pampanga provincial government built at a cost of ₱1.380 million including the building housing it, according Arthur Punsalan, provincial environment chief.
Maria Sinukuan is the name of the mountain deity, erstwhile a male benevolent king before the Spanish colonial period.
Gov. Lilia Pineda opened the valves after laboratory examinations and test runs since January showed good results, Punsalan added.
According to the governor, the Arayat facility will soon supply water to 10 district hospitals in the province to prevent water-borne diseases.
She said providing safe water is part of the Alagang Nanay Preventive Health Care Program of the provincial government for poor residents.
“Ang maruming tubig ay pinagmumulan din ng mga sakit,” she said.
Mayor Jeffrey Luriz said the water is also available to nearby villages. Around 10,000 bottles of water will be given to elementary students when the new school year opens in June.
Punsalan said spring water passes through a three-stage filtration process that includes reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light sterilization.
The facility can produce more than 5,000 bottles daily.
Pineda has urged the residents, especially farmers, to take care of Mt. Arayat and help reforest so it can provide water and other bounties. More than 3,000 hectares of this inactive volcano is protected by law. It is under the control of the DENR.
Punsalan said the provincial government has been investing on clean water in “respect of right to clean water.” In January, it built a ₱7.6-million water system linked to homes of 580 families in the coastal village of Bancal Pugad in Lubao town. It marked the end of fetching water from hand pumps.
Four more coastal areas in Sasmuan and Macabebe towns are getting a new water system, he said.