By Madelaine B. Miraflor Reynaldo Velasco   The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) will embark on a new water master plan that will secure Metro Manila’s demand for potable water in the next 10 to 25 years. This, according to MWSS Administrator Reynaldo Velasco, involves adding as much as 3,000 million liters per day (mld) in the water treatment capacity of the agency and its concessionaires. Velasco said the agency recently came up with a new set of water projects that can be built within the administration. These projects comprise the 600 mld Kaliwa Dam, the 500 mld Montalban dam and the development of the 1,950 mld ‘ABC’ projects as alternative sources of water. The ABC projects would involve taking advantage of the untapped and water wastage from Angat, reviving the Bayabas Dam Project, and pushing for the Candaba Multi-Purpose Impounding Dam project, an earlier report in Manila Bulletin showed. Velasco also disclosed about Wawa dam proponent Oscar Violago and his new partner about their intention to construct an 82-meter dam in Montalban primarily to help mitigate flooding in the province of Rizal and to produce 600 mld through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme. Long term, the MWSS chief said there is now a policy shift of constructing the 3,300 mld Kanan Dam over the 1,800 mld Laiban Dam project on account of the high social engineering cost of relocating 4,900 settlers. Reacting to the pronouncements of Velasco, Maynilad COO Randy Estrellado lauded the water agency under the present leadership for its bold and openness to venture into new water sources to meet the increasing demand for potable water. “It’s really unfortunate that we have wasted six years to build new water sources during the past administration. We commend Administrator Velasco and the MWSS Board of Trustees chaired by retired Judge Franklin Monteverde for their proactive approach and pragmatism to insure water security and sustainability,” Estrellado said. For his part, Manila Water COO Ding Carpio supported the new water projects being pushed by MWSS even as he expressed elation that these new water sources projects will further assuage the overall water security blanket of Metro Manila, Cavite, Rizal and Bulacan. Earlier, MWSS described as deemed “expensive” the proposed multi-billion peso water treatment plant in Laguna Lake by Manila Water Company, Inc. Manila Water is proposing the development of a multi-billion water treatment plant to be situated in the middle of two major water infrastructure projects — one of which to come online soon while the other one is targeted for completion in 2023. The Manila Water project has included in its long-term plan, which is now submitted to the government, the construction of Laguna Lake East Bay plant that could treat 250 million liters of water per day (mld). It will be located in the middle of Laguna Lake Central Bay project, which will be operational in October, and Kaliwa Dam, the government’s only flagship water project that is hoped to be completed within this administration. The Laguna Lake Central Bay project would have a capacity of 100 mld, while Kaliwa would have a capacity of 300 mld. Manila Water Chief Operating Officer Geodino Carpio said their proposal is the least expensive. “We have conducted five alternative studies and we found out that from the East Bay of Laguna Lake and bring it to the metropolis is still the least expensive,” said Carpio. But MWSS has an entirely different view.