News Release (Re-Print)

Maynilad Water Services, Inc. notes that the government has not started developing another water supply source for the metropolis to supplement the Umiray-Angat-Ipo or Angat reservoir system.

Metro Manila is doubly vulnerable to a water crisis because of climate change and the possible movement anytime of the West Valley Fault on which Angat Dam in Bulacan province sits, according to Maynilad president and CEO Ramoncito Fernandez. Asian Development Bank says that a serious breakdown of Metro Manila’s only water source would result in losses to the economy and health risks, with the poor suffering the most.

Notwithstanding the threats, the System, the regulator, has yet to start construction of kaliwa Dam in General Nakar, Quezon province. The project was supposed to start However, the timetable for Kaliwa Dam’s completion has been moved to 2022. Maynilad doubts whether the timetable will be met given the opposition from the indigenous people in the Sierra Madre.

Kaliwa Dam is expected to supply 600 million liters a day (MLD) or over a quarter of Angat’s water supply. Kaliwa Dam, along with Laiban Dam and Laiban Hydro-Electric Power Plant projects, is expected to yield 1,800 MLD. The two dams could yield more than the 2,000 MLD currently produced by Angat if they hurdle legal, resettlement and environmental issues.

As early as 2013, then President Benigno Aquino III had warned of