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Friday, March 29, 2024

Manila Water spent record P13.7b in 2021 to upgrade franchise area

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Manila Water Company Inc., a unit of the Ayala Group, said Wednesday capital expenditures hit a record P13.7 billion in 2021, 28 percent higher than 2020’s capex of P10.7 billion.

The water utility said in a statement the investment, the highest since its privatization in 1997, was instrumental in upgrading operations and optimizing services to East Zone clients.

“It is imperative for us to focus our capital spending to meet both our water supply and sewerage service obligations. Despite the challenges, we continue to serve more than 7 million people in the East Zone with safe and reliable water supply, covering over 1.3 million households and with more than 5,000 kilometers of network pipelines,” said Manila Water president and chief executive JV Emmanuel de Dios.

Manila Water Company Inc. is spending P13.7 billion on the construction of new facilities and networks to expand service coverage, rehabilitation and improvement on existing assets and facilities for both water and wastewater, compliance projects relating to biological nutrient removal for wastewater facilities, and the implementation of interim water source projects.

Major components of the investment are the construction of new facilities and networks to expand service coverage, rehabilitation and improvement on existing assets and facilities for both water and wastewater, compliance projects relating to biological nutrient removal for wastewater facilities and the implementation of interim water source projects.

The water firm said the intervening water sources are critical to ensuring water availability in the coming peak demand months in summer, while major new water sources are still being built by the government.

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It said the completed sources included deep wells with total capacity of over 100 million liters per day.

Among the major water projects funded by the investment were the East Bay Water Supply System Project, which will utilize Laguna Lake as source; the Calawis Water Supply System Project which will treat and distribute water from the Upper Marikina Watershed; the Marikina Portable Water Treatment Plant, which will utilize Marikina River as a water source; and the landmark Novaliches-Balara Aqueduct 4 project which entails the construction of a fourth aqueduct from the La Mesa Dam to the Balara Treatment Plants.

The Novaliches-Balara was the first infrastructure project in Metro Manila to deploy a tunnel boring machine without causing disruption to traffic and motorists playing Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City.

Manila Water said it complied with the environmental standards enforced by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources through its biological nutrient removal on wastewater projects. These include BNR retrofitting in East Ave., Quezon City, BNR granular adsorption media in FTI Taguig and BNR operational adjustment in Olandes Marikina.

Other major investments were diverted to the construction of more wastewater system projects that include the Mandaluyong West Sewerage System; Hinulugang Taktak Sewerage System Project with its sewage treatment plant being constructed in Antipolo City; the San Mateo-Rodriguez Sewerage System; and the North and South Pasig Sewerage System, where the Ilugin STP now on its test-run phase.

“For wastewater, we have invested close to P40 billion in capital expenditures over more than 20 years and will invest over P38 billion more until 2022. Wastewater coverage in the East Zone is now over 30 percent, equivalent to 2 million people served through nearly 400 kilometers of laid sewer network. This is a significant increase from only 3 percent coverage when we took over operations from MWSS in 1997. These accomplishments, in turn, would not have been possible if not for the support and guidance of MWSS,” de Dios said.

Manila Water said it awarded 282 projects in 2021 in collaboration with government agencies and reliable contractors in compliance with international standards.

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