Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) Administrator Reynaldo Velasco bared in a press briefing Monday that Filipinos will be hired for the construction of Kaliwa Dam, which is slated to begin on the second quarter of 2019. The PHP18.72-billion dam is funded by official development assistance from China.
MANILA -- Serving as a long-term solution to Metro Manila’s perennial water problem, Kaliwa Dam’s construction will be fast-tracked to address the woes of the public.
Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) Administrator Reynaldo Velasco made this point Monday, adding that the China-funded Kaliwa Dam is slated to begin on the second quarter of 2019.
Although the deal with China’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) was intended to provide more comfort to Filipinos, it is peppered with controversies as administration critics demand not borrowing money, especially from China.
This, after a Japanese firm continues to sway the public of its proposal to handle the dam’s construction.
“I do not know what is their agenda, I hope they do not say wrong facts. Kung totoong maganda yan, bakit hindi na approve ng National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) (If it is really a good proposal then why did NEDA rejected it),” Velasco clarified.
NEDA is the regulatory board assigned to oversee national projects, including proposals, before they are approved for viewing of the appropriate agency.
“Any project should pass through the scrutiny of NEDA, the Kaliwa Dam is already a done deal. I do not see how it can be reversed,” he said.
The dam, which is part of the Duterte administration’s two-phase “New Centennial Water Source (NCWS),” is expected to supply 600 million liters per day (MLD) of water.
The project was supposed to take four to five years to be completed but Velasco said they are asking the Chinese contractor to shorten it to three years.
The three-year-long project will also pave the way for job generation to the local labor force in the country.
The bulk of the work, he added, involves the construction of a 27-kilometer tunnel from the source in the boundary of Infanta and General Nakar, Quezon province, to the treatment plant in Teresa and Antipolo, Rizal. (PNA)
