Manila Water terminates Pangasinan bulk water project

MANILA, Philippines — The consortium of Manila Water Co. Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Manila Water Philippine Ventures (MWP) said its concession agreement (CA) for a bulk water supply project with the Provincial Government of Pangasinan (PGP) has been terminated.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, Manila Water said that the CA was deemed terminated “due to non-fulfillment of conditions precedent by PGP.”

The termination was effective on Dec. 31, 2023.

In January 2022, the consortium signed the concession agreement with the Provincial Government of Pangasinan for the project, which was supposed to produce an additional 200 million liters of water per day (MLD) to the province.

“The water consortium will invest P8 billion over the next 25 years for the implementation of capital expenditure programs that will create an infrastructure that will source water from Agno River using the riverbank filtration technology and will increase water supply in the province,” Manila Water said earlier.

Through the project, at least 14 cities and municipalities in Pangasinan, including Villasis, Urdaneta, Malasiqui, Dagupan, Mangaldan, Sta. Barbara, Calasiao, Mapandan, Manaoag, San Carlos, Binmaley, Lingayen, San Jacinto, and San Fabian were supposed to see improvement in their water supply.

Manila Water earlier said that efforts for the water project began in September 2016 when the consortium submitted an unsolicited proposal to the provincial government of Pangasinan.

This was followed by the initial evaluation of the Pangasinan Public-Private Partnership Selection Committee (PPP-SC) before the notice of acceptance was issued in November 2018.

Manila Water serves the east zone of Metro Manila and Rizal Province, while MWPV operates bulk water supply projects in the province of Cebu and in Tagum, Davao del Norte.

MWPV also provides water and wastewater services in other key metropolitan areas, including Batangas, Laguna, Bulacan, Pampanga, Boracay, Iloilo, and Samar, among others.