San Miguel bags first water PPP

Business World | Posted on December 07, 2015 11:08:00 PM

A CONSORTIUM composed of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Korea Water Resources Corp. (K Water) yesterday bagged the 30-year contract for a P24.4-billion public-private partnership (PPP) project that will supply water to Bulacan consumers.

Gerardo A.I. Esquivel, administrator of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), confirmed yesterday that a notice of award for the Bulacan Bulk Water Supply Project (BBWSP) has been sent to the SMC-K Water consortium that offered to supply water for P8.50 per cubic meter.

The BBWSP is one of the two PPP water projects, the other being the P18.72-billion New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project that aims to meet an increase in Metro Manila demand. San Miguel Holdings Corp. is one of five prospective bidders for that other PPP water project.

“The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System issued today the notice of award to the consortium of San Miguel Corp. and Korea Water Resources Corp. for the P24.4-billion bulk water supply PPP project in the Province of Bulacan,” the PPP Center said in a statement on its Web site, noting that the “SMC-K Water Consortium offered the best bid.”

The PPP Center explained that the main criterion for determining the winner “is the lowest bulk water charge per cubic meter (/cu.m.) that Bulacan water districts would have to pay the private partner.”

SMC-K Water’s offer was lower than those of Team Polaris’ P10.65/cu.m. and Prime Alloy Water’s P9.75/cu.m.

Cosette V. Canilao, PPP Center executive director, said in the statement that “[b]y 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.”

SMC-K Water Consortium is now tasked to provide treated bulk water to the 24 water service providers in Bulacan to help meet rising water demand there, increasing the number of households served and expanding service area coverage.

Under a 30-year build-operate-transfer contract, SMC-K Water will undertake the financing, design and construction, as well as operation and maintenance of conveyance and treatment facilities as well as of the water source itself.

Counting BBWSP, contracts for 12 PPP projects cumulatively worth some P217.4 billion have been awarded since the third quarter of 2010.

San Miguel has so far bagged the contract for one other PPP project, namely: the P15.86-billion second phase of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Expressway Project that will link NAIA terminals I, II and III to the Skyway and the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway. — V. V. Saulon