ANGELES CITY -- The Balibago Waterworks System Incorporated (BWSI) has joined the nationwide cleanliness drive initiated by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Criselle Panlilio Alejandro, senior vice president of BWSI, said the firm's 50 operating franchises recently conducted a simultaneous clean up drive in selected areas.
The BWSI Group of Companies implemented its environment project last Monday in support of the DENR Environmental Management Bureau's national clean-up day held last September 17, according to Alejandro.
"So all of those (BWSI) franchises which are located in Pampanga, Tarlac, Bulacan, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Viscaya, Aurora, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Benguet, Iloilo, Bohol, Batangas, Laguna are cooperating and partipating," Alejandro said.
In this city, BWSI employees selected Don Juico Avenue in Barangay Malabanias and Sitio Pader in Barangay Balibago as their target areas for their cleanliness program.
"I really wanted Balibago Waterworks System Incorporated to fully participate with our national government and our countrymen in promoting environmental values for our employees," Alejandro said.
She added that BWSI also wants to show communities where it has franchises that the water firm's executives and employees support the government's advocacy by cleaning the environment.
As a water utility, concern for the environment is "very closely" related to the BWSI business, according to Alejandro.
"We get our product---water---from nature and if we don't protect the environment through protection of watershed areas, we will eventually lose our water sources. So it's very critical for Balibago to support this," she said.
In some areas, the BWSI also conducted tree-planting, Alejandro added.
The BWSI recently forged an agreement with the Arayat municipal government for the establishment of a P150-million surface water-treatment facility along the Pampanga River in Barangay Camba.
BWSI President Cristino Panlilio said the Arayat Water Treatment Plant is the first project in Central and Northern Luzon that will employ surface water filtration system.
Arayat town officials, including Mayor Bon Alejandrino and Vice-Mayor Ramon Changcoco, described the water treatment plant as an environment-friendly facility.
"We will not use ground water to provide safe and potable water. This is going to be the way of the future that we will no longer depend on ground water," Panlilio said.