LWUA to invest P2.3 billion for provincial water supply

Employing mostly foreign official development assistance (ODA) funds, the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) targets an investment of P2.3 billion this year to finance the improvement and expansion of various provincial water supply systems.

The goal is to provide access to piped potable water to an additional 350,000 people living in the countryside.

LWUA Administrator Lorenzo H. Jamora said that for the project, the agency will utilize mostly previously secured foreign loans and grants from multinational and bilateral aid institutions.

Under LWUA’s project disbursement program for the current year, Jamora said total foreign exchange components for the projects will amount to P1.673 billion while local funding counterpart will amount to P509.263 million.

On the other hand, locally-funded projects or those wholly financed by peso funds from LWUA’s internal cash generation will amount to P117.6 million for the year, Jamora added.

Jamora said much of the ODA funds and their local fund counterpart will be used in the implementation of various projects under foreign-assisted project packages of the Baguio Australian Agency for International Development or AUSAID project; the 19th, 20th and 21st Yen Package of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), otherwise known as the Provincial Cities Water Supply Programs; the Subic Bay Area and Small Towns Water Supply Programs of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Provincial Towns Water Supply Program I and II of the German KFW and the Improvement of Water Quality in Local Areas Program of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).