THE PUBLIC-Private Partnership (PPP) Center is to issue early this month a project specifications to qualified bidders for the P18.7-billion dam that is expected to supply more water to Metro Manila.

Reginald P. Florentino, the PPP division chief handling the New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project, said in a recent phone interview that his team is finalizing the minimum performance standards and specifications (MPSS) for the project as well as a set of instructions to the prospective bidders.

He confirmed that San Miguel Holdings Corp. and the consortium of Datem, Inc. and Spanish firm Abeinsa Infraestructuras Medio Ambiente SA have been prequalified to bid for the project.

He said that the MPSS is the output that the center would require for the project, which will be determined by a technical working group composed of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and its consultants.

The instruction to bidders will prepare the two companies ahead of the pre-bid conference a month later. The target bid submission is in April. If the timeline goes as scheduled, the project is expected to be awarded to the winning bidder by May 2015.

The project aims to increase Metro Manila’s raw water supply to meet future potable water demand. It will serve as a redundant water source, thus reducing the city’s dependence on the Angat dam reservoir. The MWSS is the project’s implementing agency, with the Department of Public Works and Highways as co-implementor.

Separately, the MWSS is coordinating with the local government units that will be affected by the water security project. Their endorsement is awaited before the notice of award to the winning bidder. The water agency targets the contract signing for the project in June 2015.

The winning bidder is to finance, design and build the Kaliwa Dam in Tanay, Rizal with a target capacity of 600 million liters per day. The target start of construction is in September 2017.

The planned facility, which will be under a 25- to 30-year build-operate-and-transfer contract, is one of two MWSS projects under the PPP scheme. The first one — the P24.4-billion Bulacan Water Supply Project — was awarded to San Miguel Corp. in Dec. 2015.

The PPP program addresses the government’s limited funding resources for infrastructure or development projects. It is structured to give the private sector that takes on a project an opportunity to earn a reasonable rate of return on its investment.

03 January 2016
By Victor V. Saulon