• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The provincial government of Negros Occidental has set a timeline to come up a resolution by end of May this year, on whether to award or decline the offer of lone bidder to its P1.2 billion bulk water project.
Provincial Administrator Atty. Rayfrando Diaz yesterday said that they are still studying the proposal of the lone bidder for the Capitol bulk water project, noting that the review of technical and financial post qualification is very tedious.
First Balfour, which forms part of the Lopez Group of Companies, with Victorias Milling Company as the local partner, is the lone bidder of the project.
Stressing that it is a big project, Diaz said “we don’t want to overlook something very important, which later becomes a problem.”
The Negros Occidental Bulk Water Supply Project (NBWSP) involves the financing, engineering design, construction, operation, and maintenance of a bulk water supply system with a minimum capacity of 34.5 million liters/day (MLD), to be sourced from the Imbang River and/or Malogo River.
It is expected to supply treated bulk water to six water service providers in the Negros Occidental in the cities of Bacolod, Silay, Talisay, and Victorias, and the municipalities of Manapla and EB Magalona.
The consortium submitted a bid of P24 per cubic meter of water.
About 100 million liters per day (MLD) will be sourced from the Malogo River, and around 34 to 36 MLD will also be generated from the Imbang River, according to Provincial Government Focal Person for Public Private Partnership projects, Atty. Jessa Genteroles.
The provincial government of Negros Occidental is providing a P200 million counterpart fund for the project.
If the proposal is not approved, Diaz raised the possibility that the amount of P200 million may be used to help water districts in those localities, especially in capital expenditures to manage their respective water systems.*