The water unit of Metro Pacific Investment Corp. said it is looking at a bulk water supply project in Cebu to resolve the worsening water crisis in the province due to El Niño.
“With the water crisis there are a lot of opportunities that Maynilad/MetroPac Water Investments Corp. is looking at in Cebu,” Maynilad Water Services Inc. president and chief executive Ramoncito Fernandez told reporters.
Fernandez said his company was in talks with the Cebu government to help its water crisis problem.
“If you look at it, the water crisis is really because of the lack of supply, so helping the city, helping the province and helping Mactan to solve the problem is the task that we would like to offer. We are here to offer our expertise and our service to help resolve the water crisis,” he said.
Fernandez said 70 percent of the water supply in Cebu secured from deep well, so “the potential is big.”
He added the Manila Water Consortium, which operates the Carmen Bulk Water Supply Project in Cebu, secured an approval from Metro Cebu Water District to increase the supply from 18 million liters of water per day to the local water district to between 25 million liters and 35 million liters per day in the next seven days.
MWC is 51 percent owned by Manila Water Corp., 39 percent by MetroPacWater Investments and 10 percent by Viscal Development Corp.
“The water district gave us the go signal to increase the supply that they are getting from us practically to support the city in this struggle in address this water crisis,” Fernandez said.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama on April 8 declared the city in a state of emergency because almost all barangays in the city were experiencing water supply shortage because of El Niño.
MetroPac Water Investments in November last year obtained the notice of award for P2.8-billion bulk water supply project in Iloilo City.
Under a joint venture with the government of Iloilo, the company will provide up to 170 million liters a day of bulk water supply to the Metro Iloilo Water District for the next 25 years.