Diggings across concrete roads have become irritation to motorists in Angeles and Mabalacat, but a local water company said it would repair them as soon as new pipes are laid. Photo by Ding Cervantes
ANGELES CITY- After over half a century, some 16,000 households and business establishments here and in neighboring Mabalacat are getting a P90-million major upgrade of their water system, a project that started last year and would be finished by 2014 at no cost to consumers.
This, even as the Balibago Waterworks System, Inc. (BWSI) assured its consumers that diggings across concrete roads, particularly in Barangay Lakandula in Mabalacat, would be fully restored according to government standards as soon as the laying of new pipes is finished.
BWSI provides some 18,000 million liters of running water daily to some 16,000 households and business establishments in several barangays in Angeles and Mabalacat.
BWSI area manager Ponciano Cruz said about P90 million would be spent for the four-year project.
“All these are being done at absolutely no cost to consumers. All expenses are paid for by the BWSI,” he stressed.
The upgrading project started last year at Don Bonifacio and Diamond subdivisions in Angeles City, finished at the combined cost of about P21 million.
Upgrading this year is being finished in time for deadline in January in Lakandula in Mabalacat and Mountain View subdivision in Angeles, where concrete roads had to be cracked up for the laying of new pipes.
The project in these two areas could cost about P40 million.
“We assure the public that these roads would be fully restored as soon as the pipe laying activities have been perfected. We use pre-mixed cement to make sure that the cement we use comply with standards of the Department of Public Works and Highways,” Cruz said.
He stressed that the BWSI is undertaking the project to ensure “availability and quality” for consumers.
Some 15 kilometers of new pipes are being installed in these areas. Last year, some 11 kilometers of pipes replaced old ones in Don Bonifacio and Diamond.
Cruz reported that the other phases of the upgrading project would cost another P30 million in the investment districts of Sta. Maria and Josefa subdivisions in the tourism district in Barangay Malabanias, Angeles, to be completed by 2014.
Cruz said that half-a-century old lead and asbestos pipes are being replaced by “polyvinyl chloride” and “heavy density polyethylene” pipes.
He admitted minimal shortage of water supply from BWSI’s pumps, so that his firm now derives an additional 500-600 cubic meters of water from Clark Water, a firm which supplies water to the Clark Freeport.
But Cruz noted that BWSI is now constructing an additional water pump along Seventh Street in Lakandula which, when finished, could augment the BWSI’s capacity by some 1,000 cubic meters of water per day.
The BWSI is a privately owned company established by the Santos family of Porac, Pampanga in 1958.
In 1998, a group of local businessmen led by Michail Escaler and Cristino Panlilio purchased the firm from the Santoses. At present, the firm also operates water systems in parts of Tarlac, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Aurora, Iloilo, Benguet and Laguna.
