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CUC eyes restoration of 24-hour water
Part of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s rebuilding efforts is to go back to the goal of providing 24-hour water supply throughout Saipan—a project that was strongly in progress until Super Typhoon Yutu hit in late October.
CUC executive director Gary Camacho said that 24-hour water has been a big a challenge for CUC for many years.
“We were able to achieve it for the first time in September, but the storm has impacted that. So the plan is to get us back to 24-hour water throughout the island soon enough as that is the focus and I think we will be able to achieve that without a problem.”
“That is a priority, along with geothermal, as we will be looking into that again. We are proceeding with understanding our geothermal prospects even more,” he added.
Camacho reiterated that water mitigation is extremely high on CUC’s priority list. “In fact, it’s on the top of the list. …What this means is that the water supply will be available in multiple places and locations and will be self-generating and not dependent on the overhead system. With this, water should be distributed to many areas that still don’t have power,” he said.
He said the water restoration program to distribute water across the island is in conjunction with the plan of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to place generators in pumping stations.
“We do have a grant and a request for proposal is underway. …We want to make sure that we get this thing moving,” he added.
Power expansion is also in the works. “We are going to be expanding, with more guy wires, storm guys and a variety of things to secure the poles and system for future storms. Concrete poles are in place but now, we need to anchor them,” he said.
CUC was in the final phases of putting up concrete poles in the wake of Typhoon Soudelor “but then Yutu hit. …A lot of this will be dealt with and our system is much stronger as we move forward…”
