MAYNILAD Water Services, Inc. on Monday has broken ground on a P10.5-billion sewage treatment plant that is set to become the company’s largest in terms of capacity as it will be able to treat about 205 million liters of wastewater per day.

The plant, called the CAMANA (Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas) Water Reclamation Facility, is expected to help clean the waterways flowing to Manila Bay while improving the sanitation conditions in three cities.

“The completion of our CAMANA treatment facility will increase Maynilad’s sewerage coverage to 47%, up from only 6% in 2006 before Maynilad was reprivatized,” said Maynilad President and Chief Executive Officer Ramoncito S. Fernandez in a statement.

The facility will treat wastewater generated by some 1.2 million Maynilad customers in south Caloocan, Malabon, and Navotas. It will be built on a 16-hectare lot along Dagat-dagatan Ave. Ext. in Brgy. Maypajo, Caloocan City.

“As in previous implementations of our wastewater projects, we ask for the support of the local government units and communities so that we can facilitate completion and mitigate the impact on traffic of our activities,” Mr. Fernandez said.

To catch wastewater from households and establishments in the covered cities, Maynilad will also lay about 85 kilometers of accompanying sewer lines leading to the treatment facility.

Maynilad said the CAMANA facility will use advanced Modified Ludzack Ettinger (MLE)-Conventional Activated Sludge technology to remove pollutants from wastewater before its discharge to the Maypajo creek, then to Manila Bay.

The sewage treatment plant is designed to comply with the stringent standards mandated by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources under the water quality guidelines and general effluent standards of 2016.

The company said the facility is part of its P200-billion wastewater investment plan from 2019 to 2037 that will involve the construction of 26 new STPs and the installation of about 425 kilometers of new sewer lines.

Along with the facility, Maynilad is also building other sewage treatment plants in Valenzuela, Las Piñas City, and Tunasan and Cupang in Muntinlupa.

Maynilad, the largest private water concessionaire in the Philippines in terms of customer base, operates and maintains 22 wastewater facilities with a combined treatment capacity of about 663,000 cubic meters of wastewater per day.

Maynilad and Manila Water Company earlier filed a motion for consideration on the Supreme Court decision to impose a P921- million fine on the two companies for failing to connect all existing sewage lines to the available sewerage system within five years from the effectivity of the Clean Water Act, or from May 6, 2004.

Maynilad serves the cities of Manila, except portions of San Andres and Sta. Ana. It also covers Quezon City west of San Juan River, West Avenue, EDSA, Congressional, Mindanao Avenue, the northern part starting from the districts of the Holy Spirit and Batasan Hills.

Down south, it serves Makati west of South Super Highway, Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas and Malabon all in Metro Manila; and the cities of Cavite, Bacoor and Imus, and the towns of Kawit, Noveleta and Rosario, all in Cavite province.

Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) has a 52.8% stake in Maynilad. MPIC is one of three key Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT). Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld. — Victor V. Saulon

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR