APO Agua Infrastructure Inc. (AAII) is now just waiting for the conversion permit approval from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) before they can commence construction of the first part of the bulk water project.
The permit from DAR will allow conversion of Tamugan from agricultural land to industrial land. Aboitiz Equity Venture (AEV) advisor for Mindanao Art Milan said the conversion application is already with DAR and they are looking forward for its review and approval within the year.
He said as the documents are already with DAR for a while now, they are hopeful that it would already be signed within the year so the construction can immediately commence.
Once the construction has started, it is targeted to be finished within three years with one year allotted for the detailed design planning and two years for actual facility construction, as said by AAII general manager engineer Cirilo Almario III in a separate interview. The entire portion of the project under AAII cost about P10 billion.
As for the part of Davao City Water District, under which the second part of the bulk water project is assigned, deputy spokesperson Jovanna Cresta Duhaylungsod said they have are already started with seven of the 13 pipe laying procedures with most of them already 50 percent complete. They look forward to finish the pipe laying within two years.
“The bulk water will be concentrated in District 2 from Tamugan downwards going towards the Dumoy Water Supply System which is in the downtown and District 2,” Duhaylungsod said.
Once completed, the bulk water project of AAII and the (DCWD) is expected to help increase the daily water production of DCWD by 400 million liters.
At present, DCWD’s current water production plays at around 200 to 250 million liters of water per day both including the residential and the commercial components. Duhaylungsod said that about 80 percent of their operations are under residential while the rest serves the commercial component.
She added with the coming of Apo Agua in the picture, they cannot estimate yet the number of service connections it can result to but they are looking forward to about 400 million liters additional production per day once the bulk water project is already operational.
On top of this, Duhaylungsod also said with the constant presence of Davao City that makes it attractive to more investors, they are also expecting an increase in the number of service connections in the coming years as well.
“We have a constant increase in the past years of about 600 to 700 service connections but at the rate of which Davao City is growing, given its exposure not just in Southeast Asia but in the entire world, we project that more investors will come. Most probably, our projected 600 to 700 service connections as of now would definitely increase,” she said.
Current water supply update
As summer season had already started and the water demand of the consumers is increasing, Duhaylungsod assured that DCWD has enough buffer water in terms of the water supply that they can provide.
“There is no threat in terms of water supply although we have areas that experience low water pressure to no water pressure at some points because of geographical locations of these areas. We have identified elevated areas in the northern part of the city in District 2 and also in Toril,” she said.
She said power interruptions during the summer may also affect their facilities and may result to “downtime” operations. She clarified, however, that such interruptions rarely happen and that generally water supply in the city is sufficient. (JPA)