MWSS chief pushes national water security summit

Stressing that water security is a critical concern nationwide, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) Administrator Reynaldo Velasco pushed for the holding of the National Water Roadmap and Summit 2017 in Malacañang to be spearheaded by President Duterte.

National Water Resources Board executive director Dr. Sevillo David and Dr. Ernesto Ordoñez initiated the water summit in an effort to bring to the Duterte administration and to the national consciousness the importance of coming up with a national water security agenda for the next five years.

Velasco submitted to the National Water Roadmap secretariat a position paper titled “Ensuring Water Security Under the Duterte Administration” that was crafted with the assistance and in consultation with Maynilad president Ramoncito Fernandez and Manila Water president Ferdinand dela Cruz.

“We hope that this position paper will contribute to the success of the water summit as part of our common advocacy to provide water security to Metro Manila residents and nearby environs in the coming years,” Velasco said.

The MWSS chief said the water summit would put on the national consciousness the urgency and relevance of implementing long overdue water security flagship projects such as Kaliwa, Liban and Kanan dam projects.

“When properly implemented and constructed, they will have an accrued production of 4,000 million liters per day (MLD) similar to Angat Dam’s 4,000 MLD that supplies 95.6 percent of Metro Manila’s water supply, ” he said.

Velasco said he would formalize the formation of a Technical Working Group comprising of the three concessionaires to review the previous University of the Philippines study and to come up with a doable water security roadmap for Metro Manila and its environs covering the short and long term flagship water source projects to include the possible rehabilitation of Wawa dam.

“The time to act is now especially when it comes to implementing long overdue new water sources like Kaliwa and Laiban dams. Let’s not wait for the day when we will be in crisis as what we all experienced two decades ago until MWSS entered into a private public partnership with Manila Water and Maynilad,” Velasco added.