Sara to sign MOA for sewage project

AN ordinance giving authority to Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio to enter into a memorandum of agreement for a proposed wastewater management project in the city is set to be passed on third reading today.

The MOA signing will become a go-signal for the city to enter into an agreement with Help Davao, Department of Science and Technology 11, and Sanifyt to improve the city's waste water.

Based on the draft of the ordinance, Sani-Embankment Project, the name of wastewater management is to be funded by the DOST 11, Dutch government, and private donors with the objective of helping the community through the introduction of low cost sanitation and flood prevention technology.

According to the MOA, the city will provide an area along Davao River where technology will be installed.

Help Davao will provide technical and infrastructure support. They will also be responsible in preparing the area for the facility. While Sanifyt and DOST 11 will design and develop the prototype of the project.

DOST 11 will be the monitoring institution that will supervise the project implementation output and compliances of the work plan. Meanwhile, Sanifyt will serve as a developer of the technology and administer the project plans in accordance with the workplan.

According to DOST 11 Assistant Regional Director Mirasol Domingo, in a separate report weeks ago, mentioned that the Sani-Embankment Project will be a bigger version of the Vertical Helophyte Filtration System (VHFS), which will filter water

from the Davao City's Slaughterhouse.

VHFS is a technology adapted from Netherlands, where it is used in household.

The report said that the DOST allotted P100,000 for the pilot testing VHFS in three food processors within the city.

It was Sean Ligvoet, Dutch water engineering and wastewater management expert, who introduced this technology to the DOST, and the government agency is eyeing to first use it in food processing establishments and small businesses.

The facility filters filthy water and cleans it so that it can be reused.

“The cleaned water will not be potable anymore. But you can use for watering the plants and washing the car,” said Domingo.

According to Domingo, from the slaughter area, the wastewater will drain down to the holding area of waste water. Here, a helophyte system will be installed to the filter the water before it would flow through the canals.