Two government agencies are combining forces with water companies in a determined effort to resolve issues involving Metro Manila’s waste water treatment.
In a recent executive conference, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu and MWSS Administrator Rey Velasco agreed on a wholistic and pragmatic approach on waste water and sewerage without unduly sacrificing the public interest such as spike in water rates.
These measures will enable them to comply with the Supreme Court’s mandamus to clean up, rehabilitate and preserve Manila Bay and restore its water to a safe level that will allow for swimming, skin diving and other forms of recreation.
The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System says it has the mandate under the Philippine Clean to supply and distribute potable water in Metro Manila and provide for sewerage and sanifation facilities for efficient and safe collection and disposal of sewages.
By virtue of a writ of continuing mandamus issued by the Supreme Court in 2008, the MWSS is one of the government agencies tasked to “clean up, rehabilitate and preserve Manila Bay and restore and maintain its water to SB level (Class B sea waters per Water Classification Tables Under DENR Administrative Order No. 34 [1990]) to make them fit for swimming, skin diving, and other forms of contact recreation.”
The SC directed the MWSS to submit to it the list of areas in Metro Manila, Rizal and Cavite that do not have the necessary wastewater treatment facilities. The concessionaires of MWSS were directed to submit their plans and projects for the construction of wastewater treatment facilities whose completion shall not go beyond 2037 as well.
Prior to the MWSS privatization less than eight percent had sewer coverage in the service area. There was minimal septage treatment and no septage treatment plant. Only some areas in Manila and Makati had sewerage facilities with most establishments using either their own or communal septic tanks. Today, MWSS concessionaries Manila Water and Maynilad have water treatment programs that benefit most of their clientele.
Waste Water Treatment
Manila Water’s sewerage service includes the operation and maintenance of networks of sewer pipelines that collect and convey sewage to Sewage Treatment Plants which then treat wastewater before safely returning it to our water bodies. Its sanitation service involves the operation and maintenance of vacuum trucks that clean or desludge household septic tanks, and Septage Treatment Plants that receive and treat the hauled septage before disposing the treated byproducts (treated wastewater and biosolids) through environment-safe means.
For Manila Water’s concession area that is not connected to a sewerage system, wastewater is disposed into septic tanks. It operates a fleet of 78 vacuum trucks and performs regular, scheduled septic tank cleaning services (desludging) for communities free of charge. It also provides emergency services to customers for a fee.
Hauled septage from septic tanks is then brought to a Septage Treatment Plant. The byproducts of septage treatment are treated wastewater (effluent) which are recycled or discharged safely, and biosolids (organic sludge).
The residue is then shipped to Central Luzon for use as fertilizer, ensuring a natural means of disposal.
Manila Water also has in place the Three-River Master Plan which aims to achieve 100-percent sewer coverage by year 2018 through a combination of sewer-drainage and separate sewer systems, covering all catchments that discharge to the three river systems within the east concession namely Marikina River, Pasig River and San Juan River.
Maynilad’s Facilities
To prevent the pollution of waterways and bodies of water, Maynilad maintains and operates 20 wastewater treatment plants that process wastewater and sludge collected from customers. It likewise maintains and operates 19 pump stations, 12 lift stations, and over 500 kilometers of sewer lines to enable the efficient collection and conveyance of wastewater from the customers to the treatment facilities to the receiving bodies of water.
Its Dagat-Dagatan Sewage and Septage Treatment Plant in Caloocan is the first facility of its kind in the Asia-Pacific Region to attain triple international standard accreditations on Quality Management and Environmental Management in January 2007, and Occupational Safety and Health Management.
The company’s Tondo Sewage Pump facility holds international standard accreditations on Quality, Environmental, and Occupational Safety and Health Management.
Maynilad also has a Septage Treatment Plant in in Pamplona, Las Pinas designed to treat waste water collected from the septic tanks of Maynilad customers in the south: Paranaque, Las Pinas, Muntinlupa and Cavite. It can treat up to 250 cubic meter of septage per day. Other existing SpTPs of Maynilad are in Project 7, Quezon City, and in Dagat-dagatan, Caloocan City.
Maynilad plans to build four new Sewage Treatment Plants in the next five years to serve 2.1 million people which when completed will have a combined treatment capacity of about 120 million cubic meters per year.
The project is part of Maynilad’s ₱30.6-billion wastewater management program for years 2018 to 2022 and involves the construction of one STP each in Kawit (Cavite), Las Pinas, Caloocan and Muntinlupa, as well as the installation of 160 kilometers of sewer lines for the conveyance systems.