Despite the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID -19) pandemic, west zone Maynilad Water Services Inc. on Tuesday said its P7.9-billion upgrade of treatment plants in Quezon City’s La Mesa Dam is already nearing completion.
Randolph Estrellado, chief operating officer, said they have deployed over 400 workers at the La Mesa treatment plants 1 and 2 to fast track completion of the facilities’ P7.9-billion upgrade.
The returning workers have passed the anti-body screening test prior to redeployment, and are now required to follow stricter safety protocols against COVID-19 infection, he said.
“Completion of this project is essential to ensuring water service reliability for our customers, given the challenges posed by increasingly variable raw water quality from Angat Dam,” he said.
The massive P7.9-billion upgrade involves increasing the facilities’ capacity to treat higher raw water turbidity, retrofitting of structures for improved earthquake resiliency, and automating processes.
La Mesa treatment plants 1 and 2 produce 2,400 million liters of water per day, and serves around 90 percent of Maynilad’s 9.7 million customers.
According to Estrellado, the upgrade, which started in 2017, is being done in phases so that the facilities could operate without water interruption services.
Apart from the improvement of the existing treatment facilities, Maynilad’s roadmap toward addressing water security challenges include the construction of new treatment facilities, pumping stations and reservoirs; sustained network enhancements through pipe replacements and leak repairs, and development of smaller alternative raw water sources to accommodate a growing population, he said.