THE government’s indecisiveness on a 33-year old water project has proven to be very costly.
In fact, the proposed Laiban Dam (which has yet to start actual construction) would have already been 75 percent complete considering the amount that was already spent by the government just for the feasibility studies, engineering designs and inventory procedures of a project designed to prevent an impending water crisis.
While Laiban Dam proposal was drawn to satisfy the need of some 12 million residents for safe drinking water, the amount in which the government has already spent on a project that hasn’t even commenced actual infrastructure works, has already ballooned to 740 million US dollars, or roughly representing ¾ of the total project cost which stood at one billion dollars.
LAIBAN DAM UP-CLOSE
Under the original master plan, the Laiban Dam project would be built in the southernmost tip of the Sierra Madre, specifically in the upland portion of Tanay (Rizal). The area where the 113-meter high dam would be constructed would cover some 28,000 hectares, encompassing the Kaliwa and Lumutan Rivers, from where the water would come from. The area also covers 12 upland barangays of Tanay.
The major components of the project are as follows:
– 113 m. high rockfill dam
– 13 km – 3.60 m. dia. tunnel & pipeline
– 30 megawatt hydropower plant
– 2400 MLD water treatment plant
– 10 km – 3.60 m. dia tunnel & pipeline to Taytay reservoir
– 120 ML reservoir 7 pressure control station at Taytay
– 100 MLD pumping station &20 ML reservoir at Antipolo
– Trunk and primary distribution mains
– Right of way acquisition and relocation of about 4,000 plus affected families including site development of proposed 4,424 hectares resettlement site in San Ysiro, Antipolo City, proclaimed as resettlement site under proclamation 2480.
TRACING LAIBAN’S TRAIL
Anticipating a rapid population boom in the region, the Philippine government 1977 saw the need to prepare facilities that would satisfy the need for safe drinking water and electricity in the future. Then Pres. Ferdinand Marcos commissioned a task force that would look for viable sources of water from where they could source potable water. The team found two — the Marikina River and that of the Kaliwa River in the southernmost tip of the Sierra Madre. Of these two, the Kaliwa River was found to best fit.
In 1978, the Kaliwa Basin Project or simply referred to as the Laiban Dam was conceptualized. The purpose for which Laiban Dam project was conceptualized is a product of a brilliant forecast of what has to be prepared in the future when the population would have already grown to sizable numbers.
And so the feasibility study began the following year. It was also in 1979 when the Philippine government sought funding from the World Bank to defray the cost of the preliminary appraisal (feasibility study) and after which, then Pres. Marcos named the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) as the lead implementing agency.
MWSS ON TOP
Upon getting the marching orders to implement the Laiban Dam project, the MWSS in January 1980 immediately commenced the spending cycle by commissioning private engineering consultancy groups to do the feasibility study on the area.
The MWSS commissioned the services of five engineering consultancy firms — Electrowatt Engineering, Renardet, Technosphere, Philtech, FF Cruz, GHD and Partners, UPSARDF and Daruma. Records as to how much was paid to the engineering consultancy firms were not made available to the media.
Upon completion of the feasibility study in 1981, the MWSS made an inventory of the families who’d be affected by the project. The inventory took the MWSS five years to complete. Under the inventory process, the MWSS claimed to have carefully accounted for the exact number of people (or families), who’d be displaced, as well as the cost of the above-ground improvements (dwellings and fruit trees) that the occupants have made. The first inventory of the MWSS placed the number of affected families at 2,000.
In 1989, the project was deferred. But soon after, it was revived and the process in which the government shelved the project only to “resurrect it from the dead” proved costly as the MWSS had to start the process all over again.
The process of commissioning engineering consultants to do the feasibility study, the process of naming an engineering firm for the Detailed Engineering Study, the process of commissioning an engineering contractor for the structural design of the facility and the inventory of the people (and their above-ground improvements) who’d be displaced by the project — all of which don’t come in cheap but actually costs the government millions of dollars. The new inventory of those who’d be affected grew to 5,000 families.
EJECTING INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
Sierra Madre Mountain Range traverses from the northern tip of Luzon down to the south. It is known to be the sanctuary of the country’s remaining indigenous tribes.
In Tanay, Rizal where the Laiban Dam would be constructed, there are cultural minority groups referred to as Dumagats and Remontados. Their physical attributes are somehow similar to the Aetas of Central Luzon.
Guess what, they are the upland settlers that the government, through the MWSS actually wants to evict from the 28,000 hectare parcel where the dam would be built.
Despite laws protecting the cultural minorities from eviction in an area classified as “ancestral domain of indigenous groups”, the MWSS appears hell bent on driving them away if only to keep the Laiban Dam project phase within the working calendar.
On strong opposition of the Dumagats and the Remontados, the government was compelled to spend for the acquisition and development of some 4,424 hectare land in Barangay San Ysiro for the relocation area of the Dumagats and the Remontados in Tanay. Likewise, government funds were also used in the construction of an access road leading to the isolated Barangay San Ysiro, which is located at the border of Rizal and that of Quezon Province.
However, not even the promise of providing a new community for them would make the affected Dumagats and Remontados agree to leave a place they just don’t call as their home, but consider as their ancestral land. To date, the government has yet to convince the elders of the Dumagat and Remontados tribes to transfer to the San Ysiro relocation area.
SPENT SO MUCH
Part of the project implementation is the tedious process of having to prepare the paperwork, which include the feasibility studies and designs. In doing so, the MWSS got the support of several multi and bilateral agencies, from where the MWSS got their funds in form of grants and loans.
Since 1994, ADB has played a major role by providing 19 loans to the MWSS sector amounting to approximately $728 million, and 27 technical assistance grants totaling $12.41 million. Projects for MWSS financed by ADB include eight loans for water supply and one for sewerage.
In addition to ADB, the major providers of official external assistance are the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the World Bank. Others include the Australian Agency for International Development, Canadian International Development Agency, European Union, France, Germany (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau), Japan International Cooperation Agency, New Zealand, and United Kingdom Department for International Development, United Nations, and the United States Agency for International Development.
The total of the financial assistance that the ADB has extended to the MWSS for the pre-construction pace of the Laiban project is pegged at $ 740 million, representing 75 percent of Laiban Dam’s total project cost, which is one billion dollars.
There are no available records of the other foreign financial institutions extending financial help to the MWSS in the preparation of the feasibility studies and designs.
WHERE THE MONEY WENT
According to the MWSS, which is the lead agency in the Laiban Dam project, everything is all accounted for insofar as spending for the Laiban Dam project is concerned.
· Feasibility Studies (FS) and Detailed Engineering was completed in 1984
· River Diversion Tunnels, twin-9m.ø x 500 meters long concrete-lined tunnel was constructed in 1984
· Acquisition of affected titled lands (only 10% physical accomplishment) and compensation of above-ground improvements (87% financial accomplishment)
· Updating of FS and Detailed Eng’g. in 1997
· Review/Update of the Financial, Legal / Institutional & other aspects of the Project in 2000
· Preliminary Resettlement Planning in 2001
· FS review and preparation of bid documents completed in March 2007
Private engineering consultants, who were commissioned by the MWSS to undertake the costly feasibility studies, detailed engineering design and planning of the project were Electrowatt Engineering, Renardet, Technosphere, Philtech, FF Cruz, GHD and Partners, UPSARDF and Daruma.
FACTS AND FIGURES
The Laiban Dam project has long been questioned over its integrity. It has in fact been shelved by all the Presidents in between the terms of the late President Marcos and former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Many described the project as no more than a milking cow of the MWSS, which calls shots for the project that has repeatedly been shelved and resurrected. The longer it takes, the more money has to be spent on the 33-year old project as the MWSS claims that the costly studies will have to be updated year in and year out. Updating these studies, it was learned, entails government funds to defray the cost of paying the engineering consultants, who’ll be picked for the juicy contract.
THE REAL DEAL
The actual cost of constructing Laiban Dam, according to the MWSS is P 52 billion. The figure represents four billion pesos higher than the P 48 billion that was earlier pegged at a time when the gap between the peso and the US dollar wasn’t that wide.
Project Components (%) Total Cost (PhP)
Head works (Dams, Tunnels) 16,333,621,183.70
34.25
Water Treatment Plant 5,911,758,286.20
12.39
Distribution System 21,350,027,262.90
44.76
Resettlement, Land Acquisition, Right of Way 4,103,733,811.50
8.60
GRAND TOTAL (Estimate Cost) 47,689,140,544.30
100
Translated into dollars, the figure required to build the Laiban Dam sums up to more or less one billion dollars, which brings us to think why the government allowed MWSS to spend $ 740 million just for the feasibility studies of a project that is worth one billion dollars.
