Top Photo: President Benigno S. Aquino III with high-ranking government and bank officials as well as MWSS Corporate Office employees led by Administrator Gerardo A.I. Esquivel. Bottom photo: MWSS Regulatory Office deputy administrators and staff led by Chief Regulator Joel C. Yu. 

President Benigno S. Aquino III unveiled the P3.3 billion Angat Water Transmission Improvement Project (AWTIP) at the Ipo Dam, Norzagaray, Bulacan on 26 May 2016.

In line with the Metropolitan and Waterworks and Sewerage System’s (MWSS) Water Security Legacy Plan, the project will ensure the sustainable provision of water supply and mitigate the risk of total loss of raw water supply to Metro Manila, Rizal, Bulacan and portions of Cavite.

During the ceremony, President Aquino led the unveiling of the schematic diagram of the project with Department of Interior and Local Government Mel Senen Sarmiento, MWSS Administrator Gerardo A.I. Esquivel, Local Water Utilities Administration Head Andres F. Ibarra, Bulacan Governor Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado, Vice Governor Daniel Fernando, Norzagaray Mayor Alfredo Germar, Asian Development Bank (ADB) Country Director Richard Bolt, and Italian Ambassador to the Philippines Massimo Roscigno.

The MWSS Regulatory Office deputy administrators and staff led by Chief Regulator Joel C. Yu, as well as officials from the two concessionaires, Maynilad Water Services, Inc. for the West Zone and Manila Water Company, Inc. for the East Zone also attended the unveiling ceremony.

The AWTIP involves the design and construction of a new tunnel (Tunnel No. 4) from Ipo to Bigte, Norzagaray, Bulacan. The new tunnel will have a diameter of 4 meters, a length of 6.4-kilometer long, and design capacity of 19 cubic meters per second (1,600 Million Liters per Day). Water from Angat reservoir is conveyed through several tunnels and aqueducts to water treatment plants in Metro Manila. Treated water is then distributed to households, businesses, and industries in Metro Manila, Rizal, Bulacan, and parts of Cavite.

The project preparatory technical assistance prioritized constructing Tunnel 4 to provide redundancy and allow further rehabilitation work on the raw water transmission system. The contract for the design and construction of AWTIP was awarded to Italy’s Cooperativa Muratori & Cementisti in the amount of P3.3 Billion funded through ADB loan. The project is expected to be finished by 2020.