MAYNILAD Water Services Inc., the private water concessionaire of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) for the West Zone, has formally inaugurated on Monday The Putatan Water Treatment Plant 2 (PWTP 2) in Barangay Putatan, Muntinlupa City.
It is the company’s second water-treatment facility that sources raw water from Laguna de Bay.
Maynilad Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the new facility is part of Maynilad’s water-security program that aims to minimize dependence on the Angat Dam in Bulacan as the primary source of raw water.
“PWTP 2 is a vital component of Maynilad’s plan to develop alternative sources of water to ensure long-term water security for its customers,” he said in a statement.
The company’s first water-treatment facility in the same area, the PWTP 1, became operational in 2009.
Tapping water from the Laguna de Bay boosts the company’s capacity to supply its growing customer base.
In terms of customer base, serving about 9.5 million people to date, Maynilad is the largest private water concessionaire in the Philippines. Under current sharing scheme as approved by the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), Maynilad receives 60 percent or 2,400 million liters per day of the total 4,000 MLD of raw water allocation from the Angat Dam. The East Zone concessionaire, , Manila Water Co. Inc., receives 40 percent of the total allocation or 1,600 MLD.
The West Zone of the Greater Manila Area, its concession area, is composed of the cities of Manila (certain portions), Quezon City (certain portions), Makati (west of South Super Highway), Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas and Malabon, all in Metro Manila; the cities of Cavite, Bacoor and Imus, and the towns of Kawit, Noveleta and Rosario, all in Cavite province.
“Maynilad has been tapping Laguna Lake as a source since 2009 when our first treatment facility in Muntinlupa became operational,” Maynilad President and CEO Ramoncito S. Fernandez said.
“In anticipation of the growing demand for water, we constructed this additional facility, which will not only increase available supply, but also enable us to better address the variable quality of the raw water coming from Laguna Lake,” he added.
As of April this year, PWTP 2 has begun producing 100 MLD of potable water for 1 million Maynilad customers in Muntinlupa, Parañaque, Las Piñas and Cavite.
The facility’s output will be expanded in phases until it reaches its full 150-MLD capacity by the latter part of the year, at which point Maynilad’s Putatan Water Treatment Plant 1 (PWTP 1) will be temporarily shut down for rehabilitation and upgrades.
“With the completion of this new facility, our priority is to increase service levels for existing customers in the south, who still have a limited supply window until now,” Fernandez said.
PWTP 2 uses a multistage process of Dissolved Air Flotation, Biological Aerated Filter, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and chlorination to treat the lake water and convert it to a product that complies with the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water of the Department of Health.