Water supply drying up

The early onset of the dry season this year is creating a headache at the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., with production levels of water going down and creating a big challenge on how to provide enough water to households on Saipan.

Anthony C. Guerrero, acting CUC executive director, told the Saipan Tribune yesterday that the dry season started early and that CUC can’t fill up its reservoirs.

“It’s a challenge right now for our water division to provide water in many areas,” Guerrero said.

The acting executive director appealed to households to conserve water.

“We just advice the community to make sure there are storage systems for water that they can sustain over the next few months because it’s going to be very difficult for CUC,” he said.

“Even if within the next few weeks we start receiving rain, it doesn’t necessarily mean that our waters will be back to normal. It takes awhile for the rain to go into our system,” Guerrero pointed out.

Patrick Leon Guerrero, CUC acting deputy of operations, told the Saipan Tribune that the water supply is affected islandwide because the production levels are going down as a result of the dry season.

A well that was producing 50 gallons a minute could now only produce 30 to 35 gallons a minute, Leon Guerrero said. “So every minute all the wells with the reduced production capacities are having an impact on our distribution capabilities. The dry season is having an impact on us, as well as in our distribution,” Leon Guerrero said.

Also, he said that some Kagman residents are not getting enough water because there is only one booster working now at booster station 1.

“It is pumping about 540 gallons a minute but” customers outside are consuming about 700 gallons a minute, Leon Guerrero said. “So the consumption is exceeding our production in Kagman. We cannot produce enough water right now to service the community.”

Leon Guerrero said that, to address the problem, CUC has drilled two new wells in Kagman.

“We have plans to immediately bring those online and feed them from the back side of the system to try and create…have an equalizer effect to try and pressurize our system,” he said.

Leon Guerrero said they are hoping to get the project done within the next three to four weeks.

CUC is working on approval from the Division of Environmental Quality to get the operating permit for the sites.

“We can’t just pump the well and put them into the system. We have to treat the water first also,” he said.

“We are trying to develop these plans right now; it is just getting over the hurdle of getting DEQ permit,” Leon Guerrero added.