Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. said Tuesday it signed an agreement with seven water districts in Bulacan province under phase 3 of the Bulacan Bulk Water Supply Project.
San Miguel said in a statement said the agreement would enable residents of Norzagaray, Hagonoy, Pandi, Baliwag, San Rafael, San Miguel and San Ildefonso to have access to affordable and reliable potable water supply.
“We are targeting start of operations by January 2023. With these agreements signed with the seven water districts, and with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System having approved the updated business plan, we can now start preliminary engineering design, and then construction,” said San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang.
“We anticipate that in just a year-and-a-half, we can start operating these new water facilities, and all our countrymen in these areas in Bulacan will finally have reliable access to safe, affordable potable water,” Ang said.
Aside from these seven towns, San Miguel is hoping to forge agreements with the water districts of Pulilan, Angat, Dona Remedios Trinidad and Bustos.
BBWSP supplies water to 13 areas, covered by phase 1 and 2 development of the facility, which started commercial operations in January 2019.
These include San Jose del Monte, Marilao, Meycauayan, Bocaue, Obando, Balagtas, Guiguinto, Calumpit, Bulakan, Plaridel, Sta. Maria, Paombong and Malolos.
Many households in Bulacan relied for decades on deep wells that tapped into groundwater sources, despite the province’s close proximity to Angat Dam.
Apart from poor water quality, Ang said the depletion of groundwater contributed to land subsidence and flooding all over the province.
“With more residents able to immediately access water through our facilities, the need to rely on dwindling groundwater supply is eliminated. Experts have said groundwater extraction is one of the causes of land subsidence, or the gradual sinking of the ground, and this worsens flooding in the province. Like our upcoming major cleanup of Bulacan’s rivers, the BBWSP forms part of our larger strategy to help mitigate and solve flooding here,” Ang said.
BBWSP is public-private partnership project of Luzon Clean Water Development Corp. and K-Water Resources Corp. consortium with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System.
The Bulacan water project produces an average of 160 million liters per day for around 165,000 households and has a maximum capacity of 388 million liters per day.