Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu has reminded the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) to ensure that appropriate environmental and social safeguards are met in the implementation of the Kaliwa Dam project, which has been recently granted a Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) by the environment department.
Cimatu said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)—through its Environmental Management Bureau (EMB)—will strictly monitor the compliance of MWSS to the conditions stipulated in the ECC.
“We expect the MWSS, as project proponent, to ensure that all activities related to the project are environmentally and socially sound and sustainable,” the environment chief said.
“Any serious violation or non-compliance with the conditions will result in the cancellation of the ECC.”
“Any serious violation or non-compliance with the conditions will result in the cancellation of the ECC,” the environment secretary warned.
The ECC granted to MWSS covers the construction and operation of a gravity dam in the Kaliwa River located in the towns of Teresa and Tanay in Rizal province, and General Nakar and Infanta in Quezon province.
The dam will be 60-meter tall with a riverbed elevation of 100 meters. Its reservoir surface area will cover some 291 hectares at full supply level volume of 57 million cubic meters.
Kaliwa Dam is meant to be an additional raw water source that will augment the supply from Angat Dam, which supplies about 96 percent of Metro Manila’s water requirement.
The EMB issued an ECC for the Kaliwa Dam project after it satisfied the requirements of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) System under Presidential Decree 1586 and its implementing rules and regulations.
“MWSS is expected to implement the measures to protect and mitigate the project’s adverse impacts on community health, welfare and the environment.”
With the ECC issuance, Cimatu said the MWSS is expected to “implement the measures presented in the EIS intended to protect and mitigate the project’s adverse impacts on community health, welfare and the environment.”
“Environmental considerations shall be incorporated in all phases and aspects of the project,” Cimatu added.