Maynilad pauses Teresa water treatment plant project

WEST ZONE concessionaire Maynilad Water Services, Inc. has temporarily put on hold its plan to build a water treatment plant in Teresa, Rizal, while exploring alternative locations to improve efficiency.

“Initially, the plan was to build the Teresa treatment plant to get water from Kaliwa Dam. We’ve shelved it for now [and] we plan to relocate it within our concession,” Maynilad Chief Operating Officer Jaime T. Lichauco told reporters last week.

He said that relocating the project within its concession area would be “more efficient” and ensures lower non-revenue water (NRW), or the water lost and not billed to customers due to leaks and illegal connections.

Maynilad President and Chief Executive Officer Ramoncito S. Fernandez said that the proposed water treatment plant may be completed within three to four years.

“It’s in our business plan to build another water source. So, it’s more of relocating the Teresa plant down to inside our concession to avoid additional non-revenue water,” Mr. Fernandez said.

The company previously earmarked around P30 billion as capital expenditure budget to build the water treatment plant that will produce a capacity of 300 million liters per day of potable water.

The facility is initially designed to draw water supply coming from the Kaliwa Dam located across Rizal and Quezon provinces, which is intended to ease the demand on the Angat Dam.

The P15.3-billion Kaliwa Dam project is on track for completion by 2028, according to the latest update from the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System.

Meanwhile, Mr. Fernandez said that tapping desalination — a technology that provides potable water by removing salt and other impurities from seawater to produce freshwater — as an alternative water source is still on the table for the company but not in the near term.

“Maybe not near term, but we have started looking at it way back. There are concrete opportunities for us to go for desalination specifically in adjacent areas in Manila Bay,” he said.

If pursued, the company plans to tap foreign expertise for the development of a desalination plant.

Maynilad 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.

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