DMCI starts construction of Maynilad water facility

MANILA, Philippines — D.M. Consunji Inc. (DMCI), the infrastructure arm of the Consunji Group, has started the construction of a P10.5 billion water facility of Pangilinan-led Maynilad Water Services Inc.

In a disclosure yesterday, DMCI Holdings said D.M. Consunji has started constructing the Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas (CAMANA) water reclamation facility project.

DMCI president and CEO Jorge Consunji said the project is an enormous undertaking because it involves expanding the capacity of a 40-year-old facility by over 600 percent.

The project is scheduled to be commissioned in the third quarter of 2024. It is designed to treat 205 million liters per day (MLD) of wastewater and will be the biggest of its kind in the country.

Around 1.2 million households in South Caloocan, Malabon and Navotas will benefit from the project.

“This facility also represents two milestones for DMCI. Aside from being our largest wastewater project, to date, it is our first partnership with JFE Engineering Corp. of Japan,” Consunji said.

JFE Engineering Corp., is the engineering arm of the JFE Holdings, one of the largest corporations in the world according to the 2020 Fortune Global 500.

The water reclamation facility is one of Maynilad’s large-scale, complex and multi-year capex projects. It involves the rehabilitation and expansion of the company’s 26 MLD Dagat-Dagatan Sewage Treatment Plant, which was built in the 1980s.

DMCI expects to employ up to 1,000 direct and indirect workers when the project hits its peak around the first quarter of 2023.

The CAMANA water treatment facility will use the Modified Ludzack Ettinger (MLE)-Conventional Activated Sludge technology to remove pollutants from wastewater before the remaining water, called effluent, is discharged to Maypajo Creek, which eventually flows out to Manila Bay.

It is designed to comply with the Water Quality Guidelines and General Effluent Standards of 2016, a more stringent standard mandated by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

As the infrastructure arm of the Consunji Group, DMCI is known for building landmarks and pioneering structures. Since completing the first skyscraper in the Philippines in the 1950s, it has built over 1,000 projects of varying scale and complexity.

This year, DMCI is set to turn over Ikea Manila, the largest branch ever in the world.