MCWD to bid out dam project soon

CEBU, Philippines - The Metropolitan Cebu Water District expects to bid out the construction of the Mananga dam in two to three months’ time.

MCWD chairman Joel Mari Yu said so far five companies; Aboitiz, Metro Pacific, Ayala, and two Chinese companies, have expressed their intent in a formal letter to develop a dam in the Mananga River. San Miguel Corp. also gave a verbal intent to develop the project.

The dam, which is also being eyed as a water source, will be about 70 meters to 100 meters high.

Yu said the Mananga River is the only water source available that has enough water volume to provide an additional 100,000 cubic meters of water daily to cope with Cebu's growing water needs.

Currently, MCWD produces about 200,000 cubic meters of water per day.

"Building this dam is not going to be easy. We need the cooperation of the national government, the Cebu provincial government, the local government unit, and the barangays," said Yu.

Yu said that as initially projected, the dam project will involve three barangays.

There are houses that may also be demolished to build the dam, but he said they have no idea yet how many houses will be affected by the project.

Yu added that after the winning bidder is awarded the project, it will take at least one year for the preparatory works, six to seven years to construct the dam itself, and one year to one year and a half years to build up the water behind the dam.

"This dam has to be built kay mao ra ni ang available water source nga dako g’yud ang volume. Nagkadako ang water demand sa Cebu," Yu added. (FREEMAN)