By Sheldeen Joy Talavera, Reporter
MAYNILAD Water Services, Inc. is allocating an estimated P30 billion in capital expenditure (capex) to build a water treatment plant in Teresa, Rizal to accommodate the additional supply coming from the Kaliwa Dam once completed, its chief operating officer (COO) said.
“The plant is estimated in the business plan at P10 billion, and then the conveyance from Teresa down to our service area is maybe P20 billion,” Maynilad COO Randolph T. Estrellado said in an interview with BusinessWorld last week.
Mr. Estrellado said the company will build a water treatment plant in Teresa, Rizal, designed to produce a capacity of 300 million liters per day (MLD) of potable water.
The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System is constructing the P12.2-billion Kaliwa Dam, a bulk water supply project that is designed to supply an initial capacity of 600 MLD of potable water upon its completion by 2027.
It is expected to ease the demand on the Angat Dam, from which Metro Manila sources approximately 90% of its water supply.
“Because of climate change, it’s difficult to be relying on a single source where every year your fingers are crossed that the dam gets filled before summer, and then when you have to rely on that dam, it’s really critical,” Mr. Estrellado said.
“We can’t use it if we don’t build the facilities that will treat the water that will come from Kaliwa Dam,” he added.
The planned investment for the Teresa water treatment plant forms part of Maynilad’s P171-billion capex commitment spanning its 2023-2027 rate-rebasing period.
“It’s a huge, huge project that we’re doing not just next year but in the coming years to ensure that it’s ready to pick up the water coming from Kaliwa Dam when it gets completed,” Mr. Estrellado said.
Maynilad operates five water treatment plants — two in La Mesa Compound, Quezon City, another two in Putatan, Muntinlupa, and its New Water Treatment Plant in Parañaque — that currently produce a total of 2,710 MLD of potable water supply.
The company serves Manila, except portions of San Andres and Sta. Ana. It also operates in Quezon City, Makati, Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas, and Malabon.
It also supplies the cities of Cavite, Bacoor, and Imus, and the towns of Kawit, Noveleta, and Rosario, all in Cavite province.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp., which has a majority stake in Maynilad, is one of three Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.
