West zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services Inc. is ramping up initiatives to protect vital watersheds to replenish dams providing the water needs of about 15 million people in the National Capital Region and nearby provinces.
The enhanced initiatives—to be done at the Ipo, La Mesa and Umiray watersheds—include the reforestation of denuded forest lands, close assessment of planting sites, intensified monitoring of major Ipo River tributaries to determine sources of high turbidity, and renewed engagement of Dumagat forest rangers to monitor, guard and report on the status of the Ipo watershed.
These would be done in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, the Quezon City government and the municipalities of General Nakar, Norzagaray, San Jose del Monte and Rodriguez.
Significant among the enhanced programs is the development of the Ipo Watershed Plan, a comprehensive program that the MWSS and the water concessionaires will undertake over the next 25 years for the use, protection and management of the Ipo watershed.
Given the effects of climate change and increased urbanization among other emerging challenges, Maynilad president and chief executive Ramoncito Fernandez said existing watershed preservation programs have to be updated to respond to these new realities.
“There is a need for stricter protection of our watersheds so that the raw water we get from our dams will be preserved, and our water production will not be affected either by supply shortage or by unprecedented increases in raw water turbidity,” he said.