Press statement of Sen. Jamby Madrigal

I am filling today in the Senate a resolution seeking to investigate the privatization of the 59 hectare portion of the La Mesa Reservoir. It is the right of every Filipino to have unimpeded access to clean and safe drinking water. In Metro Manila, the primary source of this water is the La Mesa Reservoir.

If the 59 hectare portion of the La Mesa Reservoir is converted to a housing project area for the MWSS employees, the water supply of Metro Manila is in imminent danger of contamination. Based on a study commissioned by the MWSS in October 2004 entitled A Study of the Effects of the Proposed MWSS Housing Project on the La Mesa Watershed and Reservoir, conducted by the National Hydraulic Research Center, UP College of Engineering, Diliman, Quezon City, it stated in its official final recommendation that, among others, It will be in the best interest of MWSS and the general public who eventually utilize for drinking the water in the La Mesa Reservoir that the 58 hectares of the La Mesa watershed area being proposed for the MWSS Housing Project shall remain a protected watershed area and not be converted to a housing project area.

I doubt however, if indeed this project will be used for a housing project or is the Arroyo Administration using this as a pretext for another commercial development of the remaining watershed near Metro Manila.