Quezon town didn’t endorse Kaliwa project, say officials

LUCENA CITY—Municipal officials of General Nakar in Quezon province have taken a pragmatic stand on the controversial Kaliwa Dam project that will submerge parts of their town.

“Contrary to the information being spread by those antidam, the local government is not endorsing the project, not even its ECC (environmental compliance certificate),” Vice Mayor Leovigildo Rozul said in a phone interview on Thursday.

The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) is pushing for the construction of the P18.7-billion dam as a major component of its New Centennial Water Source Project to ease a projected water crisis in Metro Manila.

Rozul admitted that since President Duterte supported the project, local officials were resigned to the fact that they could not do anything to stop it.

“Therefore, we have submitted a wish list to the dam proponents like riprapping of Agos River, roads, bridges and electricity among many others. They are the demands of mountain communities which will be affected by the project,” said Rozul, a former mayor.

But he blasted the dam proponents and other concerned government agencies for conducting “pretentious consultations using technical information that are mostly strangers to us and won’t help in enlightening the people about the project.”

He urged the government to hold serious consultations with the affected communities.

Environmental, religious and activist groups and concerned local officials in Quezon have long opposed the project.