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GSCWD Promotes Use of Wastewater for Sustainable Development By Vanne Thea G. Balboa
General Santos City Water District was one with the world as it celebrated World Water Day 2017 last March 22. Activities such as the forum, photo and video contest, and the annual tree growing activity were conducted to emphasize this year’s theme “Water and Wastewater”. The forum, entitled “Wastewater: Sustainability and Security in Health of Humans and Ecosystem”, was held with the aim to educate and inculcate among the people the importance of utilizing wastewater. Dr. Buenaventura Dargantes, a professor on socio-ecology from the Visayas State University and resource speaker for the said forum, mentioned that there is a need to reduce and reuse wastewater especially in the City of General Santos mainly because it is the third driest city in the country. Despite that, Engr. Rogelio Besana, Jr., Department Manager for Engineering and Operations
(from center left) Dr. Buenaventura Dargantes, GM Arn Gellangarin and BOD Secretary Marjorie Cartojano together with the participants from Mindanao State University - Gensan.
Department, assured that the city is not experiencing any shortage in water supply. “We are required to monitor the status of water levels of each deep
Dr. Buenaventrura Dargantes lectures on the interaction of water-wastewater and its effect to the ecosystem.
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well and we haven’t recorded any significant increase in draw down so far. This means that our water supply underground hasn’t decreased yet despite extractions for the purpose of distributing water supply to our concessionaires”, said Besana. “However, we encourage people to conserve water in any way possible. Let us not wait for that time where water becomes a scarce resource in this city. By reducing and reusing wastewater, we do not just lessen our cost of water consumption, we are also contributing to the sustainability of our water resources”, he added. According to Dr. Dargantes, “Exploiting this valuable resource will make the water cycle work better for every living thing. And we will help achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 6 target to halve the proportion of untreated wastewater and increase water recycling and safe reuse.” In a press release made by the United Nations in 2014, the Sustainable Development Goal
A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF GENERAL SANTOS CITY WATER DISTRICT