BAGUIO CITY –
SM City Baguio launched
today the first of its kind
in a mall-setting facility
that will convert rainwater
to potable water and help
contribute to the city’s water conservation and recycling efforts.
“The mall’s Rainwater Filtration facility
will supply the mall with
enough potable water
that can be redistributed
to mall tenants for various uses including washing, cleaning and safe for
drinking, to help reduce
sourcing from the communities’ water table, leaving more water supply for
the Baguio community to
use,” SM Supermalls Senior Vice President Bien
C. Mateo disclosed. While
SM has been recycling
water for decades since
the 1990’s, the water-saving innovation is part of
SM Prime’s sustainability
program towards responsible consumption and
carbon footprint reduction,
according to Mr. Mateo.
“We invest in water conservation technology to
eliminate water wastage
and adopt stricter measures to reduce consumption. More innovations
are being done to recycle
more water and filter more
rainwater across the properties and estates of SM
Prime.”
In 2022, the real
estate developer has recycled a total of 3.58 million cubic meters of water
across its properties in the
Philippines.
As of June 2023,
SM Prime has already installed water catchment
basins in 25 malls to help
prevent flooding as well as
soil erosion during sudden
high volumes of rainfall.
The rainwater catchment
system installed in SM
City Baguio can draw and
store a total of 51 million liters of rainwater in a year,
based on 2022 PAGASA
rainfall volume for Baguio City. This is equivalent
to 20 Olympic-size swimming pools, 13.4M gallons
of drinking water, 373,510
full baths and 672,318
10-minute showers.
How does it
work? During rain fall, rainwater is collected in the
tank and treated for reuse
within the mall. To make
rainwater safe for use,
the harvested water goes
through a 6-step treatment
processes – Multimedia
Filtration, Water Softener,
Activated Carbon, Ultra
Filtration, Reverse Osmosis and Ozonization – the
treated rainwater from the
tank will be re-distributed
as supply for the mall tenants for various uses including washing, cleaning
and safe for drinking.
Working towards
a better tomorrow for its
communities, officials
from the Department of
Environment and Natural
Resources of Cordillera Administrative Region
(DENR-CAR) have acknowledged the efforts
of the mall in providing a
long-term solution amidst
the growing concern on
water security. “We are
grateful for your attention
to the predicament on water scarcity in Baguio City,”
DENR Regional Director
of CAR Engineer Jean
Borromeo in a message to
SM Prime. “Water scarcity
is one of the biggest issues that Baguio is facing
today because deep wells
have already dried up the
city’s water table. It is good
to see how SM Prime is
taking its responsibility to
the environment seriously, practically addressing
the biggest environmental
threat to Baguio City.”
“This will greatly help reduce sourcing
from the city’s water table
and more water supply for
the community to use. Not
only does SM considers
what’s best for its shopping customers, but also
take into consideration the
importance of water security as one of its priorities,”
RD Borromeo added.
The Rainwater
Filtration facility is one of
SM Prime Holding’s initiatives to its commitment
towards sustainable development in the communities it serves.
SM Prime is committed
to supporting the United
Nations in achieving its
Sustainable Development
Goals (SDG), including
SDG 6: Clean Water and
Sanitation, SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and
Infrastructure, SDG 11:
Sustainable Cities and
Communities, SDG 12:
Responsible Consumption
and Production and SDG
13: Climate Action which
aims to ensure the availability and sustainable
management of water and
sanitation for all.
