With climate change now an urgent global concern, one question residents of Metro Manila may well be asking is: Can the government assure us of adequate water supply in the future?
At present, the city’s main supply source is Angat Dam, which supplies 4,000 million liters per day (MLD) of water. Water from the Angat Dam is treated at the La Mesa and Balara Plants.
The La Mesa Treatment Plant processes 2,400 MLD of raw water and serves the western portion of Metro Manila. The Balara Treatment Plant has a full production capacity of 1,600 MLD and supplies the eastern zone.
One problem is that Angat Dam is vulnerable to El Niño, an extreme weather phenomenon that causes severe droughts. Apart from this, the 49-year-old Angat Dam sits on the West Valley Fault in Bulacan. Hence, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake could affect the supply of water from Angat Dam, which provides 97 percent of the National Capital Region’s (NCR) water requirements. The Asian Development Bank is well aware of the structural instability of the dam and has warned that a breakdown of the structure “would lead to losses to the economy of Metro Manila and the Philippines, as well as potential health hazards”.
Maynilad Water Services (Maynilad), the water concessionaire for Metro Manila’s western portion, has likewise warned of the risk of relying solely on Angat Dam for NCR’s water supply. This, it said, could lead to a water shortage by 2020.
The Duterte administration is now taking steps to address the problem. For one thing, the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) wants to build a stronger partnership with its concessionaires Maynilad and Manila Water Co. (MWC) and assure NCR’s 12 million water consumers of ample water supply.
The national government wants official development assistance from countries, such as China and Japan, to finance the multibillion-peso New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project in Quezon province. The project will tap the Kaliwa-Kanan-Agos River Basin as an alternative water source for Metro Manila by generating some 600 MLD.
This will require the construction of a dam at the Kaliwa River (the Laiban Dam), and a smaller one (the Kaliwa Dam) downstream to ensure adequate water supply for Metro Manila. Construction of this new dam will go hand-in-hand with the rehabilitation of the Wawa Dam in Montalban, Rizal.
New MWSS Administrator Reynaldo Velasco wants these projects to ensure clean, affordable and sustainable water for Metro Manila and nearby provinces for the next 25 to 50 years.
Velasco has given assurances that the new MWSS Board of Trustees will deliver the needed dam projects.
With Velasco’s excellent track record at the Philippine National Police and as former mayor of Santa Barbara town in Pangasinan, both Maynilad and Manila Water recognize that the MWSS is in good hands and can implement doable solutions to Metro Manila’s water woes. Under Velasco’s watch, the MWSS will focus on three areas. One, interim and long-term water source projects to approximate at least 4,000 MLD in the next 10, 25 to 50 years.
Two, disaster management, especially with the possible occurrence of a 7.2-magnitude earthquake and antiterrorist measures on major water installations and facilities. And three, sustainable watershed management projects.
The MWSS will also draw up a new 10-year development blueprint on new water sources. The 10-year plan will focus on the Laguna Lake to supply 50 MLD; Putatan (150 MLD); Umiray and Sumag (350 MLD); Kaliwa (600 MLD); Laiban (1,800 MLD); and the possible reinstatement of Wawa Dam (350 MLD) into an active state after 24 years of lying dormant. The plan, which will be implemented in the next five years and completed within 10 years, will benefit not only Metro Manila consumers, but also those in outlying provinces.
With Velasco at the helm of the government agency MWSS, the two water concessionaires expect the MWSS to honor key provisions of the privatization deals signed in 1997.
The provisions in question involve the rate-rebasing mechanism in the MWC and Maynilad contracts that allowed them to adjust their water rates once every three years, so they could recover their multibillion-peso investments and generate sufficient revenue to cover their maintenance, expansion and modernization operations.
Maynilad had submitted a petition for an adjustment several years ago, but the MWSS arbitrarily cut the existing tariffs. This prompted Maynilad to file an arbitration case before the ICC in October that year in the hope of recovering P3.44 billion in foregone revenues.
The ICC arbitral tribunal already ruled in favor of Maynilad, but rather than comply, the MWSS put the rate adjustment on hold. Maynilad filed a second arbitration case before the ICC in Singapore, telling the arbitral tribunal that on top of its P3.44 billion losses since 2013, it has been losing P208 million a month from the time the ICC approved the rate adjustment in December 2014.
MWC has also filed an arbitration case against the MWSS before the ICC in Singapore, saying that it stands to lose a projected P79 billion until its concession runs out in 2037 because of the MWSS refusal to honor the rate-rebasing process.
With new leadership at the MWSS, the two concessionaires are hoping that the water agency would now be more accountable and decisive in honoring its contracts so that Metro Manila will have a clean, affordable and sustainable water supply for itself and outlying provinces in the years ahead.
E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.