X. A, 2 



Heise: Water Supplies in the Philippines 145 



At least one additional town, Asturias, has since started a 

 similar town project. 



Attention has already been directed • to a special study of typ- 

 ical springs made by Mr. V. Q. Gana in 1908. 



A rather peculiar spring is situated in the city of Cebu on 

 the beach near the old leper house. The water from this spring — 

 or, more properly, series of springs — is fresh as it issues from 

 the sands of the seashore, although the springs are entirely 

 covered at high tide. Abella mentions * a spring situated on 

 the beach at Oslob, which is submerged at high tide, so that 

 people are obliged to wade out into the ocean to collect the 

 water. At low tide the flow is greatly decreased. 



Approximately thirty successful deep wells have been drilled 

 in Cebu Province by the Bureau of Public Works alone ; however, 

 about one half of these are located in the city of Cebu. Strangely 

 enough, although the Province of Cebu is mountainous, only one 

 flowing well (at Argao) has been developed, and this flows only 

 at high tide. The installation of deep wells has done much 

 toward improving local health conditions. 



Although unsafe surface waters still constitute a large per- 

 centage of the available water supply, an active campaign against 

 surface wells inaugurated by the district health officer is rapidly 



lessening the evils which may be traced to the use of impure 

 water. 



The field trip in Cebu included one journey south from Cebu 

 to Argao and another from Cebu west to Toledo and north from 

 Toledo to Asturias. 



City of Cebu. — The main source of water supply for the city 

 of Cebu is now the Osmeiia Waterworks, completed in 1912. 

 This installation, in addition to the distributing system in the 

 city and a concrete distribution tank, comprises a reenforced- 

 concrete dam and spillway located in a narrow gorge at Buhisan, 

 about 6 kilometers from the town. Between 1,000,000 and 

 1,500,000 cubic meters of water are impounded by the dam, rep- 

 resenting a supply, based on the water-consumption data for 

 Manila, of at least one hundred days for the city of Cebu (popu- 

 lation, 60,000). The water is clear to begin with at almost all 

 times of the year, and the great storage capacity of the reservoir, 

 supplemented by that of the distribution tank (over 15,000 cubic 

 meters — that is, almost two days' supply), gives ample oppor- 



' This Journal, Sec. A (1914), 9, 273. 



' Rapida Descripcion . . . de la Isla de Cebu. Madrid (1886), 87. 



