Aboitiz to finish Davao bulk water project this year

Cosette Canilao —photo courtesy of aboitiz infracapital

The infrastructure arm of the Aboitiz Group targets to complete this 2022 the construction of its Davao bulk water project, which seeks to supply 300 million liters of clean water per day.

Aboitiz InfraCapital president and CEO Cosette Canilao said during a recent virtual press briefing that they were “going to finish” this year the Davao City Bulk Water Supply Project (DCBWSP) under the Apo Agua Infrastructura Inc., a joint venture with J.V. Angeles Construction Corp.

“[We] are hoping that we’ll be able to recreate Apo Agua in other parts of the country,” she added.

For DCBWSP, the joint venture will source the water from the Tamugan River. The treated water will be supplied to over 1 million Davaoeños.

Its water treatment facility is designed to be powered by a two-megawatt run-of-river hydroelectric power plant. The raw water will pass through this renewable energy facility to generate power that can be used to treat the input before distributing the water supply to the reservoirs.

P12-B project

The group broke ground for the project in 2018, about three years after the signing of the bulk supply agreement with the Davao City Water District.

Parent firm Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. earlier said it expected to invest some P12 billion for this infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Canilao reiterated the company’s intent to build telecommunication towers.

Last year, the Aboitiz-led company said it was “assessing the opportunity” with PLDT Inc.’s common tower buildout program.

Aboitiz InfraCapital had formed a joint venture with global private markets firm Partners Group last year to establish telco infrastructure platform Unity Digital Infrastructure Inc.

Unity is set to build and operate telco towers in the country—in line with the government’s goal of enhancing internet connectivity with the additional rollout of cell sites.

Last month, Aboitiz InfraCapital started the 57-hectare industrial expansion of its Lima estate in Batangas. It is set to host new locators and generate additional 22,000 job opportunities. INQ