Best viewed in Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 3 and their higher versions with Javascript enabled.

      LWUA Chairman Prospero Pichay, Jr. initiated LWUA relief operations for Typhoon Ondoy victims barely a few hours after the typhoon's devastating rains stopped.

       LWUA's multipurpose hall, which earlier had been spruced-up for the anticipated visit of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on the last day of the month to the agency's 36th anniversary celebration, was turned into a command center of the relief efforts.

      Relief operations were organized as early as Sunday, September 27. Actual relief and assessment efforts began the next day as LWUA volunteers -- many of whom were themselves victims of Ondoy's floods -- were divided into teams to fan out into nearby Marikina City (specifically the Tumana area), San Mateo, Montalban, Taguig, Pasig, Antipolo and Cainta.

      The volunteers were headed by LWUA physician Dr. Edison Cuenca, the commanding officer of the agency's Armed Forces of the Philippines Reserve Command-affiliated Water Supply Batallion.

       On the second visit to the Tumana area alone, LWUA distributed some 5,000 bags of relief goods. The same was repeated in San Mateo and Montalban and, in the second week of the agency's relief operations, in Bulacan (Meycauayan, Calumpit, Obando), Pateros and Malabon.

       LWUA took a breather in its relief operations only on the evening of September 30, the night President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo graced its 36th anniversary celebration to witness the signing of a Tripartite Memorandum of Agreement between LWUA, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Philippine Association of Water Districts on the development and management of the country's watersheds.

       When implemented, the tripartite agreement will pave the way for Chairman Pichay's vision to plant 30 million trees in three years that will sustain the country's freshwater sources and prepare the nation for the projected global climate change which experts said will adversely affect developing countries like the Philippines.

       The President herself had just come in from Polangui in Albay where she led the inaguration of a P140-million water supply project funded by LWUA.

       While acknowledging LWUA's relief efforts for the flood victims, President Arroyo also gave "institutional" instructions to LWUA to assist in ensuring the delivery of safe potable water to the evacuees and to preclude the occurrence of water, food and sanitation-related diseases.

       At the same time, the President also announced her approval of the full release of LWUA's P1.5-billion appropriation for CY 2009 to fund additional water supply projects in the countryside.

       Chairman Pichay, meanwhile, announced that LWUA was donating P1.5 million to the Malacanang relief funds and sending some 5,000 bags of relief goods to the Malacanang evacuation and relief center for typhoon victims.