MAYNILAD Water Services, Inc. has completed the upgrade of a sedimentation basin at La Mesa treatment plant 1 in Quezon City, the west zone water concessionaire said.
“While there are 11 more basins to go, this is a significant milestone in the rehab project of La Mesa and our ability to respond to the challenges of climate change,” said Maynilad Chief Operating Officer Randolph T. Estrellado in a statement on Sunday.
The sedimentation basin is part of the company’s P7-billion rehabilitation project for Maynilad’s La Mesa treatment plant 1 and 2, which produce about 2,400 million liters of water per day to serve about nine million customers.
The 12 sedimentation basins at treatment plant 1 are being fitted with tube settlers and sludge scrapers. This increases the plant’s capacity to address high turbidity in the raw water during the rainy season.
“We are upgrading one basin at a time, because we cannot shut down the plant and interrupt water service to give way to the rehabilitation work,” Mr. Estrellado said.
The rehabilitation of the basins is being done in phases to not disturb plant operations during the upgrades.
Aside from rehabilitating the sedimentation basins to improve treatment capacity, other upgrades being done at the La Mesa treatment plant 1 and 2 are the retrofitting of structures for enhanced earthquake resiliency, and the automation of processes for more reliable operations.
“The rehab project is targeted for completion in 2020,” the company said.
Maynilad serves certain portions of the cities of Manila, Quezon and Makati. It also covers Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas and Malabon in Metro Manila.
Outside the Philippine capital, it serves the cities of Cavite, Bacoor and Imus, and the towns of Kawit, Noveleta and Rosario, all in Cavite province.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp., which has majority stake in Maynilad, is one of three Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Victor V. Saulon
