The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) government has provided 10 water desalination machines to the island provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi to ensure the availability of potable water.

Minister Naguib Sinarimbo of the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) – BARMM said here Tuesday the machines, costing PHP20 million each, have an output capacity of 22,000 liters of water per day and can operate for 8-10 hours.

“Five desalination machines are allotted each for the two island provinces,” he told reporters in an interview.

On August 28, he said three desalination machines were separately installed for the island municipalities of Hadji Panglima Tahil, Pandami, and Pata in Sulu.

The desalination machines are the first three of the 10 sets of machines to be distributed for Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

“Digging for wells in those areas was not an option since the three municipalities are surrounded by sea,” Sinarimbo said.

He noted that the desalination machines are BARMM’s intervention to address the scarcity of safe drinking water in the island provinces of the region.

“The machines will be of great help to ease the burden of residents living in the island municipalities in accessing clean potable water,” he said.

Sulu Provincial Administrator Erwin Tan, who represented Governor Sakur Tan during the initial phase of the water desalination machines’ installation, thanked the BARMM government for the initiative.

“We appreciate this so much. We will never forget this gesture from the BARMM government,” he said in a message to MILG-BARMM.

Aside from Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, Sinarimbo said desalination facilities will also be set up in the island province of Basilan. (PNA)