The Mayor of Baguio City in the Philippines recently ordered the City Buildings and Architecture Office (CBAO) to craft a program for the upgrading and expansion of the Baguio Sewage Treatment Plant (BSTP) at South Sanitary Camp barangay which is now a 32-year old facility. In response, the office prepared a roadmap for the upgrade of the existing STP at Sanitary Camp and expansion in Lower Rock Quarry based on the Water Quality Management Area (WQMA), a 10 – year compliance scheme.
BSTP currently serves 65 urban barangays that treats sewage from residential, commercial and institutional buildings within the Central Business District. It operates 24 hours daily, 365 days a year with a design capacity of 8,600 cubic meters per day.
The upgrade cost for STP at sanitary camp is estimated to be PHP 343.37 million (USD 6.69 million) which will increase its capacity from 8,600 cubic meters to 14,800 cubic meters per day. The decentralized STP proposed at Lower Rock Quarry is anticipated to cost around PHP 146.59 million (USD 2.86 million) with a capacity of 7,600 cubic meters per day that can serve 16 barangays.
According to the Assistant Head of City Environment and Park Management Office (CEPMO) and Division Chief of the Wastewater Management Division, major challenges in the waste water management operations include presence of fats, oil, and grease accumulation to sewer lines attributable to the absence of oil or grease separator or trap of some establishments; illegal sewer connections due to lack of manpower to monitor; low monitoring of septage collection at source; high cost of operations but low revenue from collections; no spare units of equipment and devices; large volume of solid wastes hauled during water way clean-ups; and the pressures of growing population.
(Sources: Philippine News Agency; The City Government of Baguio)
