Manila Water Company calls on the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) to consider all possible water sources other than the proposed Laiban Dam to ensure that it taps the most efficient and cheapest possible source.

In an interview, MWC President Rene Almendras said the new source must be scaleable, explaining that “if you suddenly produce 2,400 million liters a day and we cannot consume that, that will drive the cost of water very high.”

“So we are looking at something that is scaleable maybe 200 million liters a day by 2018 or another 100 million liters a day two years later because the water demand will not spike up the way it used to,” he said.

Almendras noted that people are a curve for water that no longer moves the way it had done in the past. Also in the past, we have a lot of unserviced areas but, right now, we are already at 99 percent of the service coverage area.”

He said this means that growth in demand will no longer come from rapid expansion of coverage and it will now be almost a GDP function with growth coming only from potential progress and expansion in the commercial and industrial activities in Metro Manila.

“While we are seeing a recovery in areas which significantly dropped year on year because of the economic slowdown, we are seeing them come back to where they are already,” Almendras said.

He underscored the need for a scaleable project since “the future demand for water is something that we are studying because everybody is becoming more responsible, green oriented. So I do not think a very large water source is needed right away.”

MWC has received a proposal from Sierra Madre Water Corporation offering a water source as an alternative to the $1 billion Laiban Dam.