|
 Quezon
City--The Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) plans
to invest this year an additional P3.76 billion to fund the completion
of a total of 258 water infrastructure projects in as many areas
to provide access to safe potable water supply to an additional
560,000 people in the provincial areas.
LWUA Board
Chairman Prospero A. Pichay, Jr., said that LWUA will also look
into the feasibility of developing bulk water supply in three
provincial areas and sewerage facilities in ten water districts
to optimize the utilization of available water resources as well
as help in the protection and preservation of the natural environment.
Pichav also
bared that in line with the Arroyo administration's reform initiatives
in the provincial water supply sector, LWUA will assist 85 existing
water districts to reach higher levels of credit-worthiness with
the ultimate aimn of graduating then from the government's financial
assistance program and ebaling them to access further development
project funding from the financial market
LWUA Administrator
Orlando C. Hondrade said the agency is targeting the completion
of water infrastructures in 119 identified "waterless communities"
covered by water districts and 101 more projects in still non-operational
water districts to contribute greatly to one of the priority legacy
programs of the Arroyo administration which is aimed at providing
safe water to all barangays by 2010.
 According
to Hondrade, part of the P3.76 billion targeted project disbursements
for this year will come from the P1.5 billion fund committed by
the Department of Health (DOH) under the department's proposed
2009 budget and another P600 million fund from the Department
of Public Works and Higfhways (DPWH), P69 million of which have
already been released to LWUA in November last year yet with the
balance already with approved spe;cial allocation release order
(SARO) from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
The P2 billion
funds that will come from the DOH, to which LWUA has been transferred
by President Arroyo in July last year as an attached agency, and
the DPWH are specifically for the development of potable water
supply systems in the waterless municipalities as identified earlier
by the National Anti-Poverty Commission or NAPC.
.
January 21, 2009
.
|
