The Philippine Government has formally awarded the Bulacan bulk water supply PPP project located in north of Manila to a team composed of San Miguel Corp. and Korean Water Resources Corp.

To be more specific, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) issued on 7 December the Notice of Award (NOA) to the winning consortium.

With the lowest bid, a charge of P8.50 per cubic meter, the consortium beat the P10.65/cu.m. of a team made up Manila Water Company Inc., M.E. Sicat Construction Inc. and JH Patawaran Construction Inc. and the P9.75 of a team made up Prime Water Infrastructure Corp., Malaysia's MTD Capital BHD, and United Kingdom's Biwater International Ltd.

The project involves the following: construction of treated water transmission mains, including line appurtenances from the water treatment plants (WTPs) to the agreed delivery/interconnection points of the municipalities; construction of WTPs and ancillary facilities; construction of treated water reservoirs; construction of pumping stations; installation of flow metering devices after the WTPs, pumping stations, transmission branch points and at the agreed delivery/interconnection points; and installation of appropriate pressure monitoring stations.

The project will be developed on a design, build, finance, operation and maintenance basis through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract agreement. The contract period will be 32 years. The total project investment is estimated at P24.4 billion (US$513.7 million).

PPP Center Executive Director Cosette V. Canilao stated:

"By tapping the private sector in this project, government will be able to deliver better services and secure access to potable water of millions of Filipinos in the Province of Bulacan."

"This is what Bulacan Bulk Water Supply Project is all about. This project is not about providing water to the 24 municipalities alone, nor is it just construction of a modular water treatment facility, nor is it about the conveyance system with 1.2 diameter pipes. All these are about water security, equality, fairness, and leveling up the lives of many Filipinos that continue to be deprived of a basic human right."