Deputy Speaker and Antique Rep. Loren Legarda has urged the government to strengthen the country’s water security by pouring in resources to ultrafiltration systems and watershed development projects to ensure clean, safe, and potable water for all Filipinos.

The House leader cited the need for the government to ensure water security in the country by implementing watershed development initiatives.

“Water is a basic need, yet, oftentimes, its value is being taken for granted. Strengthening our water security through programs like the ultrafiltration system and watershed development is a vital move to address water security challenges. Water security is not only about the provision of sufficient water; it is also assuring that we maintain healthy ecosystems and resilience against water-related disasters common to a vulnerable country like ours so that we can ensure a clean, safe, and potable water for all,” Legarda said.

The former chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance announced that Pandan, her hometown, is "the first to have a water ultrafiltration treatment plant in the Philippines,” which will serve as a model project that will be replicated by other water districts.

“Access to clean and potable water is one of the basic rights of our people. Having safe water means securing the health of our people. With the country’s high vulnerability to climate change, pollution, and increased demand for water supply, the quality of water is very important and requires urgent protection,” she said.

Citing the World Health Organization (WHO) report in 2015, Legarda noted there were 1.8 billion people who had to use contaminated sources of drinking water, making them vulnerable to diseases like cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio.

"In 2019, according to the United Nations, 12 percent of the world population drinks water from unsafe sources,” she said.

It was Legarda who pushed for the funding for the construction of the ultrafiltration system and for the implementation of watershed development program in Malumpati, Pandan under the budget of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) for fiscal year 2018.

According to Aldwin Alojipan, general manager of Pandan Water District, the Pandan Water District Water Quality Project is the first ultrafiltration system among all water districts in the Philippines, which is capable of filtering particles as small as 0.03micron.

"With the increased tourism activities in our only water source in Malumpati, this project will ensure that Pandananons will continue to have safe drinking water. This will also serve as a benchmark for all filtration projects in other water districts and water providers in the Philippines,” he said.

Legarda noted that the Ultrafiltration System Project, which was inaugurated in 2019, is aimed at filtering turbidity and bacteria such as coliform or e-coli and pathogens like viruses, which will turn tap water from Pandan Water District as clean and purified as the commercial bottled-water for the benefit of all households being served by the water district.

The ultrafiltration system also has a water-testing equipment for testing the presence of e-coli, chlorine, iron, manganese, and aluminum in the water, she said.

She added that as part of the watershed development program, more than 12,000 bamboo and indigenous trees were planted to help maintain the watershed of the Malumpati pumping station as well as help the reforestation of the Malumpati Tourist Area and parts of the Pandan Arboretum.