MANILA SEWERAGE

closed

The Manila Sewerage and Sanitation Project aims to improve environmental sanitation in the poor and densely populated areas of Metropolitan Manila and develop an institutional strategy for the implementation of similar projects in the future. The project provides for (a) rehabilitation of the sewer system in the central area of Manila; (b) construction of a sewerage collection system in about 2,050 ha of low-income and blighted areas; (c) staff training and technical assistance; and (d) water quality monitoring. The project should make immediate improvements in the living conditions of about 900,000 urban poor, of a total estimated 3 million population served by the project. The main risk of the project is that this is the first major sewerage and sanitation undertaking by MWSS. Because of its innovative nature, a cautious approach is being taken by implementing only 13 of the combined sewers construction program in areas of significant hazard to public health, in order to give time for the institutional strategy to be tested. Technical and management assistance and training provided under the proposed project and under a recent water supply project (Loan 1615-PH) will help to minimize this risk.