WawaJVCo, a joint venture of Enrique Razon’s Prime Infra and Oscar Violago’s San Lorenzo Ruiz Builders Group, signed a P20-billion term loan facility with BDO Unibank Inc.to jumpstart the construction of the Wawa Bulk Water Supply Project in Rizal province.
BDO Capital and Investments Corp. president Eduardo Francisco did not disclose the details of the loan but confirmed that an agreement was signed on Friday.
“A deal was signed. It shows that the project is bankable, feasible and that there will be support for the project,” Francisco said.
BDO Capital acted as the sole arranger and book runner ofr the deal.
The project is expected to address the recurring water supply problem in Metro Manila. It aims to deliver at least 80 million liters per day to east zone water concessionaire Manila Water Company which will be the offtaker of the project starting year 2021 and over 500 MLD by 2025.
The project is still awaiting the final approval of state-owned Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System.
MWSS chairman Reynaldo Velasco earlier said the company would give its final approval for the Wawa dam—a major flagship project of the Duterte administration’s water security program.
Velasco said the MWSS board would tackle and approve the Wawa Dam project to help address the water supply deficit in the east zone.
“The Wawa Dam is an integral part of the overall short-, medium- and long-term water flagship projects of MWSS to ensure water security,” Velasco said.
“We are in a catch-up mode as far as water supply source is concerned. Wawa Dam, which used to be the water source for Metro Manila before Angat Dam was completed in 1967 and became operational, has been identified by water experts as the best potential water supply source for Metro Manila,” Velasco said.
WawaJVCo signed an offtake agreement on Aug. 6
“We are ready to move forward and have been proactively working with all stakeholders, public and private, to progress this project since 2018. Wawa is the fastest and least expensive water source development and comes at no cost to the government,” said Prime Infra’s Enrique Razon.