MWSS starts building ₱6.3-B aqueduct

With a fresh ₱6.3-billion fresh funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) said it is now on track with the construction of Bigte-Novaliches Aqueduct 7 (BNAQ 7), a water transmission pipeline in Angat Dam.

“The MWSS’ project preparation for BNAQ7 is moving ahead as planned after an investment loan from the ADB was recently approved,” MWSS said in a statement.

The approval of the loan, according to the agency, is a “testament” to the project’s importance, scale, impact.

The new aqueduct will have a capacity of 1,500 million liters of water per day (MLD) and will replace the old and leaking aqueduct 1 and 2, which can only deliver 300 MLD.

The higher design capacity for the new aqueduct provides substantial safety factor to the water security of Metro Manila and the flexibility in the repairing other aqueduct systems, MWSS said.

“This will ensure that the water releases from the Umiray-Angat-Ipo system will flow to the different treatment plants of the MWSS’ concessionaires,” the agency added.

The project is part of the expanded Angat Water Transmission Improvement Project (AWTIP) and is supposed to be constructed after the operationalization of the new Tunnel 4.

Tunnel 4, construction of which was also financed by ADB, was partly operationalized during the period of Enhanced Community Quarantine and is currently in the final stages of completion. It will be fully operational by July.

MWSS Administrator Emmanuel Salamat said that AWTIP will help temporarily spare Metro Manila from a serious water shortage at least until 2021.

“We are looking at other strategies to address the water woes. What are those available water supply that we can aggressively pursue within the next three years before we can realize a bigger dam, which is the Kaliwa Dam,” Salamat said in an earlier interview with Business Bulletin.

One of these strategies, according to him, is the AWTIP, which seeks to improve the reliability and security of the raw water coming from the 53-year-old Angat Dam through the partial rehabilitation of the transmission system from Ipo to La Mesa.