Manila Water explores Pangasinan supply deal

MANILA, Philippines — The consortium of Manila Water Co. Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Manila Water Philippine Ventures (MWPV) continue to explore water supply partnerships with the Provincial Government of Pangasinan as it looks to revive the recently terminated concession agreement (CA) between the two.

In a statement yesterday, MWPV said that it reached out to the local government of Pangasinan to explore the revival of the botched concession agreement.

“Pangasinan and the consortium of MWPV remain open to explore partnership on water supply for the province even after the concession agreement has been deemed mutually terminated at the close of 2023. This presents an opportunity to revisit the conditions precedent of the old contract and renew partnership for the benefit of Pangasinenses,” the company said.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange earlier this year, 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 province government of Pangasinan for the project, which was supposed to produce an additional 200 million liters of water per day 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 talk 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 highlighted that Pangasinan, as one of the most populous provinces in the Philippines and one of the largest in terms of land area, has been considered as a haven for investments in recent years.

“To support the province’s economic growth, both parties recognize that adequate water infrastructure is vital,” Manila Water said yesterday.

Manila Water non-east zone COO Melvin Tan said the company continues to expand its footprint in the country’s top metropolitan cities, including Pangasinan.