Citing the urgent need to reduce wastewater and protect the environment, MWSS Administrator Reynaldo Velasco commended two water concessionaires for embarking on multibillion-peso projects on waste water treatment and sewerage services.
MWSS concessionaires are mandated to have their respective water treatment programs that benefit their customers in line with the Supreme Court order to improve sewerage and water quality in Metro Manila.
“We need to reduce the quantity and pollution load of wastewater that we produce to help protect the environment and our water resources,” Velasco said.
Velasco cited Maynilad and Manila Water for working proactively to improve waste water treatment and sewerage services in their respective servicing area of coverage.
Velasco noted West Zone concessionaire Maynilad’s allotment of P1.7-billion budget this year to increase its sewerage coverage as well as maintain its existing wastewater network.
Maynilad president and CEO Ramoncito S. Fernandez said that it is a challenge for them to facilitate the completion of wastewater projects given the impact to traffic of laying new conveyance systems.
“Nonetheless, these projects are important so we can catch harmful effluents before discharge to the environment. We need the support of local government and the communities to accelerate sewerage coverage expansion,” Fernandez said.
Maynilad will use about P1.4 billion from its allotted budget to lay some 35 kilometers of conveyance systems in Las Piñas and Muntinlupa. The laying of these two systems will serve to catch wastewater generated by households and convey these for treatment to the three Sewerage Treatment Plants in the area.
STPs in the area have a combined treatment capacity of 148 million liters of wastewater per day and can serve about one-million residents when fully completed.
In addition, P260 million will be used for sewer-network repairs and installation of new sewer-service connections in the West Zone. Thus, the remaining P70 million will fund the maintenance and operations o wastewater facilities to ensure the reliability of Maynilad’s sewer network.
Apart from the waste water projects, Maynilad recently inaugurated a P1.07-billion sewage treatment plant in Pasay City, which is part of the company’s investment plan to improve wastewater infrastructure and reduce pollution loading in water bodies.
The new STP in Parañaque is nearing completion.
Maynilad has three septage treatment plants, 19 STPs, 40 pumping stations, 22 lift stations and more than 500 kilometers of sewer lines.
On the other hand, Manila Water has two septage treatment plants, one of which is the largest in Asia, 41 STPs, 40 sewage treatment plants, and 368.24 kilometers of sewer lines