Utility project to improve water pressure in Leyte

published February 09, 2010 in BusinessWorld

TACLOBAN CITY -- The Leyte Metropolitan Water District (LMWD) has assured that a project designed to boost water pressure in this city will be completed before the end of this quarter.

Nestor P. Villasin, general manager, also assured that rates would not increase because the utility did not take out a bank loan to implement the P25-million project. The project is internally funded.

"This is a big project that is designed to increase water pressure in Tacloban," he said. Presently, the utility relies mainly on gravity to bring water from the source in Barangay Tingib, Pastrana, Leyte.

The project, which started in December 2009, uses German-made water pumps. These are being installed within the government center in Palo town, a province-owned property.

"We are confident that this will improve our service. We won’t operate this at a full capacity considering the limitation of our pipes but we are prepared for possible leaks," Mr. Villasin added.

Water pressure is low in this city because it is at the end of the utility’s distribution system. The utility also serves the towns of Dagami, Tolosa, Tabon-Tabon, Sta. Fe, Pastrana, Tanauan and Palo, all in Leyte.

Mr. Villasin also said there are over 19,000 connections in Tacloban City, more than the system’s capacity for this city. The utility serves 28,000 additional concessionaires in the other towns.

Tacloban, which gets about 70% of the water delivery, has been experiencing 25% deficiency.

Approximately 30,000 cubic meters of potable water is delivered to the LMWD service area every day with the main bulk of supply coming from the rapid filtration plant in Pastrana.-Sarwell Q. Meniano

Samar has most nutritionally poor towns -- NNC

published February 09, 2010 in BusinessWorld

PALO, LEYTE -- Eight out of the top 10 nutritionally depressed municipalities in Eastern Visayas this year are on Samar Island, the National Nutritional Council (NNC) last week reported.

Carina Z. Santiago, NNC regional nutrition program coordinator, said the report is a wake-up call to local government units with poor performance in achieving gains in nutrition.

"We will request local government officials to invest in malnutrition programs. I wish they can identify programs that they will implement. It’s about time to call members of the municipal nutrition committee to talk about how to help malnourished children," Ms. Santiago told BusinessWorld.

The town of San Vicente in Northern Samar posted the highest malnutrition prevalence in the region with four out of every 10 preschool children having shown below normal weight.

Other towns with poor performance in fighting malnutrition are Gamay in Northern Samar (32.39%), Sta. Margarita in Samar (31.78%), Pastrana in Leyte (30.76%), Sta. Rita in Samar (29.76%), San Isidro in Northern Samar (29.73%), Lavezares in Northern Samar (29.48%), San Miguel in Leyte (29.21%), Sto. Niño in Samar (29.2%), and Lope de Vega in Northern Samar (28.54%).

Nutrition officials will visit the nutritionally depressed areas to assist in local planning.

Eastern Visayas has 105,241 malnourished children, representing 18.22% of preschoolers weighed in 2009.

Ms. Santiago said Samar province posted the highest malnutrition prevalence in 2009 at 25.95%, slightly up from 2008’s 26.03%.

Northern Samar, which used to be the most nutritionally depressed province in the region, showed an improvement as malnutrition rate decreased to 23.62% in 2009 from 26.32% in 2008.

Ms. Santiago said the fight against malnutrition should start during pregnancy. Breast-feeding should be followed with proper complimentary feeding.-Sarwell Q. Meniano

Eastern Visayas dev’t planners eye hydro plant in N. Samar

published January 08, 2009 in BusinessWorld

PALO, LEYTE -- The Regional Development Council (RDC) in Eastern Visayas has asked the Department of Energy (DoE) to commission a feasibility study on a proposed hydropower plant that will tap the Pinipisakan Falls in Las Navas, Northern Samar.

Ernesto Octaviano, chief of the infrastructure development division of the National Economic and Development Authority regional office here, said a team from the Energy department initially said the waterfall could generate seven megawatts.

"According to the DoE study, a water outlet which is 21 meters in height will be tapped to run the turbines that will convert the flow of water into electric energy," Mr. Octaviano said.

The Northern Samar Provincial Development Council earlier endorsed to the regional council the proposal for the Energy department to finance the feasibility study on the construction of the hydropower plant. The feasibility study, estimated to cost P3 million, was originally targeted to start this month and to be completed in February next year.

"The hydropower plant is eyed to somehow resolve the problem outages in Northern Samar towns due to supply shortage and old transmission lines," Mr. Octaviano said in a presentation during a recent council meeting.

Currently, electricity is transmitted to Northern Samar through the Calbayog City-Lope de Vega section.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines is implementing the P1-billion Wright-Calbayog 138-kilovolt transmission project that should improve the reliability and efficiency of power supply in the northern part of Samar Island.

Pinipisakan Falls in Brgy. San Isidro of Las Navas town was inaugurated as an ecotourism destination in August last year under the Samar Island Biodiversity Project.

The next step is to build accommodation facilities and to promote the site to both local and foreign tourists.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the local government of Las Navas signed a memorandum of agreement in August last year to jointly allocate funds, protect, develop and manage the Pinipisakan Falls and nearby Ginagatusan Caves, and its surrounding ecosystem for recreational and ecotourism purposes. (Sarwell Q. Meniano)

Eastern Visayas farm sector expected to grow 5% this year

published December 19, 2009 in BusinessWorld

TACLOBAN CITY -- The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) office here has projected that the region’s agriculture sector will grow by up to 5% this year.

This will be better than the muted 0.5%-1.5% agriculture growth projected nationwide for 2009. The Agriculture department last month revised downward its original 3% growth projection for the year, citing damage to 1.3 million metric tons of palay in Luzon wreaked by storms since end-September. Rice production accounts for 14% of total farm output.

Citing a report from the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics, NEDA regional director Buenaventura C. Go-Soco told journalists here that third-quarter data showed that the decline in production of certain crops in the region has been offset by an increase in fishery output.

"Economic difficulties experienced in crop production such as in copra production were largely overcome by these improvements in the fishery sector. With this performance, the agriculture and fishery sector can experience significant growth in 2009 better than initially expected, perhaps even up to a 5% growth," he added.

Mr. Go-Soco also said the agriculture sector is expected to have performed better in this last quarter, so that "2009 will not be a bad year for this sector after all."

"There is still a quarter left in 2009. We can predict higher production due to higher consumer demand," he said.

Mr. Go-Soco said that while commercial fishing actually declined 18.7%, aquaculture and municipal fishing increased by 12.3% and 12.4%, respectively. Overall, the fishery sector grew by 8.3%. He attributed the decline in the third quarter commercial fishing output to the long duration of southwest monsoon winds that hindered fishing activities.

From July to September 2009, fish production was estimated at P3 billion, with Eastern Samar as top producer and contributing P994 million, or almost one-third of the regional value.

Mr. Go-Soco said significant improvements were made in municipal fishing in Eastern Samar, Leyte, and Northern Samar.

Crops exhibited varying performance in the third quarter.

Late harvesting and tungro infestation affected palay production, which declined by 4.3% in the third quarter from the same period last year. Tungro is a virus causes severe stunting of plants and general reduction in production.

"Coconut production was virtually steady, with a decline of only 0.4%. This decline is attributed to what agriculturists termed as fruiting fatigue which follows a cyclical pattern," Mr. Go-Soco added.

Corn production was up 6.9% but abaca production declined by 4.9%, he reported.

Production of root crops was steady, with sweet potato declining by 1.2%, but taro production increased by 1.8% and cassava production increased by 1%.

"The reduction in (production of) many crops may lead to the conclusion that agriculture did not do well in the third quarter. However, since coconut production experienced only a slight reduction, then it is safe to say that while the economic situation in the agriculture sector suffered some declines, on the whole it remained stable," Mr. Go-Soco said. (Sarwell Q. Meniano)

Coconut processing investments sought to stimulate copra sales

published December 17, 2009 in BusinessWorld

PALO, LEYTE -- A top official of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) here has encouraged more investments in coconut processing to stimulate the market and stabilize the price of the coconut by-product.

PCA Regional Manager Edilberto Nierva noted that the price of copra has remained weak at P17 per kilogram in retail outlets and P12-P13 per kilogram at farm-gate.

"We are encouraging local and foreign investors to concentrate in local copra processing. The demand in the domestic market can help stabilize the price of copra in the long term. We are starting to push for rural industrialization and we continue to advocate for it," he said.

About 80% of the country’s copra production is exported. Only 20% is left for domestic use.

"We want to reverse the scenario but this will take time and effort," Mr. Nierva said.

Eastern Visayas is the second top coconut-producing region with a harvest of 1.9 billion nuts or 525,000 metric tons of copra annually.

About 649,000 hectares of land are devoted to coconut farming. The region hosts eight active coconut oil mills and has some 1.7 million farmers and their dependents. (Sarwell Q. Meniano)