Angat Dam gets P5 billion for rehab

MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino administration has approved the P5 billion funding requirement to rehabilitate the 44-year old Angat Dam in Norzagaray, Bulacan, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said over the weekend.

He said the funding requirement has already been given the go-signal by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) although the project would need to go through the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)-Investment Coordination Committee.

“There are a lot of projects. There was a presentation by the MWSS (Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System) about more resource development program. One of them is Angat and they’re asking for P5 billion. Those are key programs that we will go for,” Abad said.

Abad said the project has to go through ICC-NEDA but confirmed that the Budget department has already approved the funding requirement for the rehabilitation.

MWSS officials said the project may take 18 months and would entail the construction of support structures to strengthen the dam and increase its water holding capacity.

According to the rehabilitation program, the contract for which may be bid out in July, the improvements would allow the reservoir to hold an additional 400 million milliliters of water per day (mld) or even a maximum of 600 million mld.

This, in turn, would raise the spilling level of the dam from 210 meters above sea level (asl) to 216 masl, MWSS officials have said.

The Angat Dam, located in Bulacan, supplies roughly 97 percent of Metro Manila’s water. The dam also pumps up the Angat River Hydroelectric Power Plant and provides irrigation to farmers in Bulacan and Pampanga.

Abad said MWSS wants to execute the rehabilitation project in the second semester.

Criticized for not spending enough last year, the government is trying to boost disbursements for various infrastructure and social services projects.

Last year, the economy grew by 3.7 percent which was way below the official forecast range of 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent for 2011 and less than half of the 2010 growth of 7.6 percent.

The Aquino administration’s under-spending has been blamed for the lackluster economic growth.

For 2012, the government is projecting the economy to grow by 5 percent to 6 percent.