LWUA to invest P3.76 B for water projects in 2009
ROXAS CITY – More Filipino people are expected to have access to safe potable water supply this year.
Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) Administrator Orlando Hondrade revealed that said office is planning to invest this year an additional P3.76 billion to fund the provincial water projects.
Hondrade said that the amount will cover a total of 258 water infrastructure projects in as many areas to provide access to safe potable water supply to an additional 560,000 people in the provincial areas.
In the LWUA online news, Hondrade said that the agency is targeting the completion of water infrastructures in 119 identified "waterless communities" covered by water districts and 101 more projects in still non-operational water districts to contribute greatly to one of the priority legacy programs of the Arroyo administration which is aimed at providing safe water to all barangays by 2010.
He stressed that part of the P3.76 billion targeted project disbursements for this year will come from the P1.5 billion fund committed by the Department of Health (DOH) under the department's proposed 2009 budget.
He added that another P600 million fund will come from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), P69 million of which have already been released to LWUA in November last year yet with the balance already with approved special allocation release order (SARO) from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Hondrade said that the P2 billion funds will come from the DOH, to which LWUA has been transferred by President Arroyo in July last year as an attached agency.
On the other hand, the DPWH is specifically for the development of potable water supply systems in the waterless municipalities as identified earlier by the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC).
Meanwhile, LWUA Board Chairman Prospero Pichay, Jr. said that LWUA will also look into the feasibility of developing bulk water supply in three provincial areas and sewerage facilities in ten water districts to optimize the utilization of available water resources as well as help in the protection and preservation of the natural environment.
Pichay also said that in line with the Arroyo administration's reform initiatives in the provincial water supply sector, LWUA will assist 85 existing water districts to reach higher levels of credit-worthiness with the ultimate aim of graduating them from the government's financial assistance program and enabling them to access further development project funding from the financial market. (PIA/Jemin B. Guillermo)