MWSS picks Razon's water source proposal
Over MWC’s Laguna Lake project
Manila Water Company's 115billion Laguna Lake East Bay project was shelved by the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) for a project that the Ayala-led company will not build.
Instead, Manila Water will only serve as an off-taker once a new Montalban Dam or much improved Wawa Dam has been built most likely through a possible joint venture agreement between port magnate Enrique Razon and businessman Oscar Violago.
This was according to MWSS Administrator Reynaldo Velasco, who said the mandate of his agency is to look for new water sources that won't cost too much and won't take so much time to build.
It was just last week when the MWSS Board of Trustees approved Manila Water's application for a water rate increase under the mandatory rate rebasing review. On the same meeting, it denied the firm's proposal to build a facility within the East Bay portion of Laguna Lake that will supposedly serve as its additional source of water.
"The [Laguna Lake] East Bay project is very expensive. That's about 115 billion to [build] and it will produce 250 mld [million liters per day]. That's why we revived the Wawa Dam," Velasco said in a briefing yesterday.
If given the green light, the Wawa project, which mainly involves the construction of more than 80-meter dam in Montalban, is expected to deliver at least 500 mld and could be built in next two to three years.
This is where Razon, the owner of International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) and Bloomberry Resorts Corp., the operator of Solaire Resort and Company, enters the picture.
According to Velasco, Razon and his partner, Violago, already expressed interest to do the project under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme. Violago, through San Lorenzo Ruiz Water Development Corp., is involved in the construction of hydropower plants.
Velasco said that compared to Manila Water's Laguna Lake East Bay proposal, the Wawa Dam project wouldn't cost so much to build but refused to figure out estimates how much investment is needed to complete its construction.
Right now, MWSS is doing its own feasibility study on the project, which should be finished in six months.
For his part, Manila Water Spokesperson Jeric Sevilla brought up anew the urgency over Manila's need to have a new water source. Otherwise, there will be a water shortage in the next few years.
This was the same argument that Manila Water Chief Operating Officer Geodino Carpio used last month when he defended the company's Laguna Lake East Bay proposal over Velasco's "expensive" remarks.
The Laguna Lake East Bay plant, which could treat 250 mld, will be located in the middle of Manila Water's Laguna Lake Central Bay project, which will be operational in October, and Kaliwa Dam, the government's only flagship water project that is hoped to be completed within this administration.