Maynilad pours P 1.1B into ‘Adopt an Estero’ program

Maynilad Water Services Inc. is investing about P1.1 billion to augment government efforts to clean up waterways that drain out to Manila Bay.

The amount is earmarked for Maynilad’s “Adopt an Estero” initiative, under which the company will, over three years, help rehabilitate Estero dela Reina, Estero de Sunog Apog, Estero de Magdalena, Estero de Concordia, and Estero de San Antonio Abad.

The efforts involve the laying of around 10 kilometers of sewer lines to catch wastewater flow from Maynilad customers residing along the creeks, who could not be served by individual sewer connections.

The collected wastewater will then be diverted to the nearest sewer network of Maynilad. The project is expected to benefit some 62,000 people.

“Even as we install the sewer lines that will prevent wastewater from flowing directly to esteros, we seek the help of all local government units to ensure that solid waste does not pollute these same esteros that we are trying to clean,” Maynilad president and chief executive Ramoncito S. Fernandez said in a statement.

“This would render our investment in the wastewater infrastructure useless,” Fernandez said.

The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System’s concessionaire for the West Zone first launched this initiative in November 2018 and, since then, has installed 323 meters of interceptor pipes along Estero dela Reina that benefit more than 5,300 residents in the area.

Earlier, the MWSS said construction of interceptor pipes and other facilities in the esteros was among the components of the alignment project being undertaken by the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission and Maynilad.

Project implementation is from 2018-2020 which will benefit 8,456 households in Estero dela Reina; 1,221 in Estero de Sunog Apog; 1,441 in Estero Magdalena; and 287 in Estero de Concordia. The generated wastewater will be treated in Maynilad’s Tondo Sewage Pumping Plant. INQ