MANILA, Philippines — The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) admitted that the government is partly to blame for the ongoing water crisis in Metro Manila and Rizal province.
MWSS chief regulator Patrick Ty said the government and water service concessionaires already forecasted water supply problem and have formulated solutions, which have been delayed.
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"It's our fault. It's the government because the Kaliwa Dam, Laiban Dam has been proposed since the Marcos time and due to lot of oppositions and accommodations for the IPs, from the informal settlers, from this leftist group, church group, these projects keep on getting moved," Ty told ANC's "Headstart" Thursday morning.
Ty addded that the proposed Laiban Dam, which will get water from Kaliwa River in Tanay, Rizal, would supply more than 2,000 million liters per day (MLD).
Kaliwa Dam, on the other hand, is a smaller source as it would only serve 600 MLD.
"An immediate solution for probably the next 20 years is the Kaliwa Dam. Further than that, we need the Laiban Dam. Let’s say we’re talking about a 50-year plan we need a bigger water source than Kaliwa," Ty said.
Opposition from residents in the area have been the problem of the construction of Laiban Dam as it would displace IPs and informal settlers.
The MWSS chief also noted that they have been rushing the construction of the Kaliwa Dam during the Aquino administration but oppositions have derailed the project.
Under the Aquino administration, the Kaliwa Dam project was approved as public-private partnership but the Duterte administration decided to make it an official development project, which means that it would be funded by a foreign country.
The Kaliwa Dam project had been identified as one of the government infrastructure projects that would be financed by China through a bilateral loan agreement.
"Are you saying it's our fault? Yes, it's our fault. It's everyone's fault because we've been delaying all these projects," the MWSS chief said.
"I would say it's everyone's fault including us because we're not conserving water... These NGOs blocking all these alternative water sources, the government — we should have pushed ot more," Ty added.
Ty stressed that Metro Manila cannot solely rely on Angat Dam and needs an alternative water source.
He also noted that both Manila Water and Maynilad have been pushing for alternative water sources as early as 2007.
"Manila Water has been raising that issue since I took over in 2017 so all this is our problem and we need to fix it," Ty said, adding that if the Kaliwa Dam is not finished by 2023, the water shortage would be worse than what Metro Manila is currently experiencing.