10-year Metro Manila water supply plan bared

As part of its 140th anniversary celebration this year, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) has unveiled its 10-year development plan to address key issues on water infrastructure development, resource management protection, sewerage and sanitation, and water distribution efficiency in line with President Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build” development policy.

“We shall pursue major flagship projects, like the Laiban, Kaliwa and  Kanan Dam projects, that will ensure adequate, steady and sustainable water supply for our consumers in Metro Manila and adjoining provinces in the next 25 to 50 years,”  said MWSS administrator Reynaldo Velasco.

The MWSS chief said the Angat Dam, the major source of 95.6 percent of the water requirements of Metro Manila and its environs, was being secured under the Angat Dam and Dike Strengthening Project.

“To ensure its stability and safety to withstand the potential risk posed by possible seismic activity associated with the West Valley Fault, the structural roadmap for securing and optimizing the Angat Dam has been defined and it is projected for completion in the next two years,” Velasco said.

Major water projects

Among the major water projects now being pursued by MWSS include the Kaliwa Dam in General Nakar and Infanta in Quezon province which will have a capacity of 600 million liters per day.

“The proposed New Centennial Water Source Project (NCWSP) is set to provide water security, reliability and additional supply for Metro Manila, planned to be site-specific, zeroing in on the Kaliwa-Kanan-Agos River Basin as an alternative water source,” Velasco said.

The NCWSP also involves the construction of a dam at the Kaliwa River (Laiban Dam), and a smaller dam (Kaliwa Dam) downstream to maximize the water supply, and to ensure short- and long-term supply for Metro Manila and its adjoining areas.

“Because of population growth, if we project demand versus the supply that is available from Angat, even with the additional supply you build in Putatan plus the projected reduction in nonrevenue water, the water that will be available is still insufficient for us in Maynilad to meet the growing demand in the south,” Maynilad president and CEO Ramoncito Fernandez said.

“That is why the Kaliwa Dam is important and they are now reviewing that to ensure that there won’t be a failed bid,” Fernandez said.

Overdependence on Angat

Manila Water president Ferdinand de la Cruz has also expressed full support for the Kaliwa Dam project, citing the need to ensure water security on account of the overdependence of Metro Manila’s water supply on Angat Dam and the ever-increasing population in the metropolis and other  serviced areas by MWSS.

Another project being implemented and funded by the Common Purpose Facility  office of the two concessionaires (Manila Water and Maynilad Water) and located in Umiray, General Nakar, Quezon, is the Sumag diversion and relocation project, which is a diversion tunnel that supplements the water coming from Umiray River going to the Angat Reservoir.

Initially part of the Umiray-Angat Transbasin Project but was temporarily deferred during the construction of the transbasin tunnel, the Sumag River Diversion Works is intended to divert raw water from the Sumag River through the existing transbasin tunnel with an estimated volume of 188 million liters per day.