The tremendous traffic jams along the stretch of Dr. A. Santos Avenue, also known as Sucat Road, in Parañaque City will be finally solved before the end of the year, Mayor Edwin Olivarez has assured motorists and commuters.
Since April last year, the 10-kilometer avenue experienced monstrous traffic when the Maynilad Water Services Inc. started its sewer network project to protect community health and the environment through proper sewage collection and treatment.
According to Olivarez, ranking Maynilad officials promised that the multimillion-peso project will be finished by the third quarter this year, after 34.6 kilometers of the 77-kilometer sewer line had been laid down and installed. This line will convey wastewater generated by households to the company’s Parañaque sewage treatment plant.
The Office of the Mayor has been receiving numerous complaints from residents after Maynilad occupied two of the three westbound lanes of Sucat for almost five months, which resulted in day-and-night traffic in the area
Motorists also complained that Maynilad failed to designate their own traffic personnel in the area when they laid the sewer pipes, with sizes ranging from 350mm to 1,350mm in diameter along the Baclaran-bound side of Sucat Road.
“Just five months more and traffic will be eased along Sucat. Aside from this, thousands of residents will also benefit from the foreign funded sewer network project,” Olivarez said.
Once completed, the project, funded by Development Bank of the Philippines and Japan International Cooperation Agency, will benefit some 470,000 people in nine barangays and 95 subdivisions in Parañaque, the mayor said.
The project is also part of Maynilad’s program to expedite the provision of sewerage and sanitation services in the metropolis, company officials said.
The water company also invested billions of pesos for wastewater management projects this year, designed to treat wastewater collected from the septic tanks of its customers in the southern Greater Manila Area, particularly the residents of Las Piñas, Parañaque, Muntinlupa and Cavite.
Since Parañaque became a municipality in 1975, water supply has been a problem for its households and subdivisions, after a huge private subdivision in the city refused to allow Maynilad to take over its water supply and distribution.
