The New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project (NCWS)

The New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project (NCWS-KDP) is a banner project under the Philippine government’s Build, Build, Build (BBB) program. The Kaliwa Dam project is central to the Philippines’ participation in China’s overseas “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) and part of the Duterte administration’s closer relationship with China. It aims to supply 600 million litres of water per day and benefit some 17.46 million people or about 3.49 million households of Metro Manila, Rizal, and Quezon by providing a redundant water source to reduce the current 97 percent dependence on the Angat Dam. The NCWS-KDP will be funded from a combination of a loan agreement under an official development assistance (ODA) loan from China (P12.2 billion) and funds from the Philippine government’s regular budget. According to official statements, 85 percent of the project cost, or about P12.2 billion, will be financed by the Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM) under the Preferential Buyer’s Credit Loan Agreement. The project contractor is China Energy Engineering Corporation (CEEC).

Project Background

NCWS-KDP has been on and off the government’s major infrastructure list since the 1970s. Its development stalled primarily because of environmental and socio-cultural issues relating to the planned construction. The project was first conceptualized under then-President Ferdinand Marcos but was overtaken by events with his departure in February 1986. However, the MWSS Board of Trustees decided to temporarily defer the Laiban Dam Project in December 1989 to accommodate equally important water supply projects which were determined to be urgent at that time.

Technical studies about the construction of a dam in Laiban continued under the administration of President Fidel Ramos starting in 1992. By 2007, the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had secured a loan from China to fund the project. However, a political scandal involving a Chinese firm marred the administration and caused the project to be shelved.

In 2009, San Miguel Corporation, a private company, submitted an unsolicited proposal for the construction of a massive Laiban Dam with a correspondingly large reservoir slated to flood some 28,000 hectares of forest. The proposal was eventually set aside with growing public concerns that the project would increase water rates and displace indigenous people; MWSS subsequently terminated the joint-venture talks for the project.

Some years later, the project was resuscitated as the New Centennial Water Source project (NCWS) with a proposal for two dams in the Kaliwa watershed: a main Laiban Dam and a regulating Kaliwa Low Dam. Concerns about the duration and construction costs led officials to consider building them in stages under different financial schemes. Choosing this option, NEDA approved the implementation of the Kaliwa Low Dam as the first stage in 2014.

The project was initially planned to be financed under a public-private partnership. Subsequently, Duterte pursued the bigger, China-funded NCWS-KDP focused on the single Kaliwa Dam, though MWSS has noted that the dam’s specifications allow for increased capacity designed to accommodate water from the construction of additional dams.