MANILA Water Company Inc., the water distributing unit of Ayala Corp., said on Friday that it would allocate a larger portion of its capital spending for the next 10 years for the putting up of wastewater treatment plants.

Jeric Sevilla, Manila Water’s corporate communications head, said in a roundtable discussion with
The Manila Times that they plan to add 25 more wastewater plants to the 38 they had already put up.

Since this is still subject to the approval of its regulator, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), the company could not say what would be the exact investment cost. However, he estimated that the 25 additional plants would cost about P50 billion.

He said that Manila Water inherited only two such treatment plants from MWSS when it won the contract to distribute water in 1997.

The 63 plants, including the additional 25 to be put up to treat wastewater, would lessen pollution in the rivers of Metro Manila. Sevilla noted that about three years ago, the Supreme Court came out with a landmark ruling in a Writ of Kalikasan case, directing MWSS to treat wastewater flowing to Manila Bay, the Pasig River and other rivers in Metro Manila.

He said that although the court’s decision was directed at MWSS, Manila Water as concessionaire would have to implement it. He added that the wastewater plants would be put up for major rivers such as the cities of Pasig, San Juan and Marikina.

He stressed that even with the treatment plants, these rivers would still not be safe for swimming “unless factories along the banks of the rivers are removed.”

Ferdinand dela Cruz, group director of Manila Water’s corporate strategic affairs, said that some of their waste water projects are on-going at the Libingan ng mga Bayani complex and in Taguig City.

Meanwhile, dela Cruz said that they are also eyeing more investments outside the country in the coming years. He said that the success of Manila Water in reducing water systems loss from 63 per cent to 11 per cent had made the firm more attractive to foreign partners.

The amount of water saved in the reduction of systems loss, according to de la Cruz and Sevilla, is equivalent to about 750 million liters a day.

Dela Cruz said that their success in reducing systems loss in Metro Manila was one of the reasons why they ventured in 2008 into a five-year system loss reduction program in Vietnam.

He said that Manila Water would be expanding its business in Vietnam from the system loss reduction program to distribution projects. This echoed the earlier announcement of Manila
Water President Gerry Ablaza at the sidelines of the Ho Chi Minh City-Manila City Investment and Trade Promotion Seminar and Business Matching.

“We are looking into potential distribution projects also in Ho Chi Minh City but we would also have to get a clearance from Sawaco [Saigon Water Co.] [which] is in charge of water distribution in Ho Chi Minh City,” Ablaza said.

He added that the project has recovered over 70,000 cubic meter of water per day lost from leakage, and once completed, will benefit over 120,000 households in Ho Chi Minh’s Zone 1.

Meanwhile, Sevilla said that the increase in the water rates set to start on January 1, 2013 would only add 1 percent to the monthly water bill of its consumers.

“This will be effective on January 1 but it will affect the consumers only in February,” he said.