Maynilad Water Services, Inc. has put nearly Php 10 billion into rehabilitation and improvement works at its La Mesa facilities, as the West Zone concessionaire prepares for potentially drier conditions ahead.
Completed and ongoing projects cover treatment upgrades, water recovery and raw water augmentation systems, additional raw water storage, and other facility improvements. All of them aim to help Maynilad manage shifting raw water conditions.
Plants Ready for Muddier Water
La Mesa Water Treatment Plant 1 can now handle far muddier water than it was built for. Its peak design capability for turbidity, or cloudiness, rose from around 300 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) to 2,000 NTU. Crews are carrying out similar work at Plant 2 to bring it to the same level.
Muddy spells are nothing new for the Angat-Ipo system, which saw turbidity climb to around 1,800 NTU in 2012. The upgrades widen the range of conditions the plants can take on.
Recovery Systems and New Reservoirs
Maynilad also strengthened its water recovery and raw water augmentation systems. Recovery Systems 1 and 3 are already running, while Recovery System 2 is due for completion in December 2026. Once all three are fully operational, they will recover and augment about 125 to 170 million liters per day.
Former sludge lagoons are becoming dedicated raw water reservoirs. Lagoons 3 and 4 already hold about 133 million liters, roughly two-thirds of the planned 200-million-liter capacity.
These reservoirs give Maynilad an operating buffer when inflow from Angat-Ipo drops or raw water allocations change. They also give the utility more room to manage available supply during dry periods.
Part of a Wider Resilience Push
Work at La Mesa also extends to sedimentation, filtration, sludge management, and monitoring and control systems, along with the replacement of aging equipment.
“We continue to invest in La Mesa because water supply resilience depends not only on how much raw water is available, but also on how efficiently we can treat, recover and manage the water already within our system,” said Maynilad Chief Operating Officer Christopher Jaime T. Lichauco.
“These improvements give us additional operating flexibility as raw water conditions change and support our continuing preparations for potentially drier conditions associated with El Niño,” he added.
The La Mesa upgrades form part of Maynilad’s broader resilience strategy, which also includes alternative water sources, reducing non-revenue water, added storage and a stronger distribution network.
