Aquino vows improved water supply for Bulacan

CITY OF MALOLOS—Saying water for Bulacan was a commitment he needed to fulfill before his term ends in June, President Aquino on Friday led the launching here of a bulk water supply project for the province.

Bulacan hosts the Angat Dam, the principal source of domestic water for Metro Manila.

Mr. Aquino said an inter-agency committee on the water sector had determined how best to preserve and efficiently use water resources. This has led to the launching of the P24.4-billion Bulacan Bulk Water Supply (BBWS) project.

The BBWS is the 12th private-public partnership project of the Aquino administration and the first venture dedicated to water. It was designed to bring clean water from the Angat Dam to the faucets of more than 3 million Bulacan residents, easing the demand for water pumped from deep wells and the province’s aquifer.

Water is a single resource overseen by 30 agencies, Mr. Aquino said. “Too many agencies manage water but end up providing insufficient service as evidenced by the low supply of domestic water throughout the country. Only a few benefit from water as a result,” he said.

“Water has been the perennial complaint I get from [Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado] and [former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Chair] Joel Villanueva. If not about too much water brought by floods, they complain about the absence of water or the condition of the Angat Dam. So before I step down from my post, I want to assure you your water problems are over,” he added.

Mr. Aquino witnessed the signing of the memorandum of agreement obliging the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System, the provincial government of Bulacan, San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) Luzon Clean Water Development Corp., and 24 Bulacan water districts to undertake the BBWS project.

SMC president Ramon Ang said BBWS would be operational by June 2017. He said the project would provide 388 million liters of water each day.

Sy-Alvarado said the BBWS would charge P8.50 per cubic meter of water it would distribute to water districts serving Bulacan’s 21 towns and three cities.

The governor also proposed the construction of a dam along the Bayabas River to catch runoff water discharged from the Sierra Madre mountain range. The excess water has been cited as one of the sources of flooding that affects Bulacan’s low-lying communities. Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon