MACTAN ROCK EXPANDS CAPACITY OF ITS 3 PLANTS
Mactan Rock can now produce 25,000 cubic meters of bulk water per day P500M loan secured to finance this and the company’s other expansion projects
Cebu-based bulk water supplier Mactan Rock Industries Inc. has added 20,000 cubic meters per day (CMD) of bulk water in its three existing water treatment plants in Mactan Island. Mactan Rock chairman Antonio Tompar said that with the additional capacity, the plants in MEZ 1 and 2 and the Mactan airport can produce about 25,000 CMD of bulk water, enough to cater to the present water requirement of the island’s economy. Tompar added that the company has secured a loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines amounting to P500 million to finance these projects and the company’s other expansion programs.
Citing the robust growth in tourism and business activities in Mactan Island, Cebu-based bulk water supplier Mactan Rock Industries Inc. has added 20,000 cubic meters per day (CMD) of bulk water in its three water treatment plants in the island.
Mactan Rock has water plants in Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ) 1, MEZ 2 and Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) producing a total of 5,000 CMD of bulk water.
Mactan Rock chairman Antonio Tompar said that with the additional capacity, these three plants can produce about 25,000 CMD of bulk water, enough to at least cater to the present water requirement of the booming local economy of Mactan.
Tompar added that the company has secured a loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines amounting to P500 million to fi- nance these projects and the company’s other expansion programs.
Last Friday, Mactan Rock unveiled the expansion of its two plants in MEZ 1 and MEZ 2.
Hotels, resorts, malls, subdivisions and other commercial establishments are among Mactan Rock’s clients. The expansion of the plant in MEZ 1, Tompar added, is also meant to identify more possible clients to serve.
Tompar said big commercial establishments have already turned to desalinated water as an alternative source of fresh water.
Desalination is the process of removing dissolved salts from water, thus producing fresh water from seawater or brackish water.
“The future of water supply is desalination,” said Tompar, adding that consumers and businesses now realize it is better to pay a bit higher than suffer water shortage, which could hurt operations.
“Desalination is now widely accepted unlike before because reliable water supply is crucial to every business,” he said.
“The impact may not be felt well in bigger islands, but we have become a reliable water supplier in small islands like in Panglao, El Nido and Samal,” Tompar noted.
Last year, the company embarked on aggressive expansions in other areas in the Visayas and Mindanao as desalinated water became a popular alternate source amid the dry spell that hurt agri-business, among others, in some areas of the country.
Early this year, the Department of Agriculture adopted preparatory measures amid the threat of another dry spell.
According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, climate model outlooks surveyed suggest that the likelihood of El Niño forming in 2017 has risen, pushing the bureau’s El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) status from “neutral” to “watch.” This means the likelihood of El Niño developing in 2017 is approximately 50 percent.
The future of water supply is desalination. ANTONIO TOMPAR