President Aquino led this week an unveiling ceremony to officially start the construction of the P3.3-billion foreign-funded Angat Water Transmission Improvement Program (Awtip), which will ensure water supply from the Ipo Dam in Bulacan to Metro Manila, Rizal, Bulacan and portions of Cavite.
The Awtip is one of Mr. Aquino’s priority projects and part of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System’s (MWSS) Legacy Roadmap toward shifting its focus from purely water distribution to ensuring water security for Metro Manila.
The Awtip project will provide another channel for water distribution from the Ipo Dam to Metro Manila, so that aqueducts and tunnels already in poor condition can be repaired without disrupting the water supply.
“MWSS takes water security seriously. The spirit and soul behind water security is not about the abundance of water but the availability of water for all, particularly the poor. Awtip is not just another tunnel, it is about water security, equality, fairness and leveling up the lives of many Filipinos who continue to be deprived of access to safe water at reasonable price, which is a basic human right,” MWSS Administrator Gerardo Esquivel said.
The P3.3-billion project involves the design and construction of a new tunnel (Tunnel No. 4) from Ipo to Norzagaray, Bulacan. The new tunnel will augment the water-conveyance capacity provided by the three existing tunnels.
The contract for the design and construction of the project was awarded to Italy’s Cooperative Muratory & Cementisti di Ravena after an international competitive bidding, and will be funded through a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The construction will take 46 months, and the project will be operational by 2020.
Also present in the unveiling ceremony are Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Alvarado-Sy, Norzagaray Mayor Alfredo Germar, Interior Secretary Mel Senen S. Sarmiento, Italian Ambassador Massimo Roscigno, ADB Country Director Richard Bolt and Local Water Utilities Administration Administrator Andres Ibarra.