[ manilastandardtoday.com ] July 9, 2009
Eight million consumers in Metro Manila need not worry about water disruption resulting from the construction of a road above the aqueducts of the MWSS because millions of motorists are now passing through them in Commonwealth, Tandang Sora and Luzon avenues.
Public Works Undersecretary Romeo Momo yesterday said the government lawyer representing the Metropolitan Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System in a hearing for temporary restraining order at the Supreme Court was right in arguing that the C-5 Extension Project poses no danger to water consumers.
“MWSS aqueducts are crisscrossing Tandang Sora, Luzon, Commonwealth avenues and other major highways from Sta. Mesa to Balara and million of motorists—including six-wheeler trucks—have been passing through them daily and we have had no problems with them,” Momo said in a statement.
Momo was commenting on the arguments of chief government corporate counsel Alberto Agra who told justices of the Supreme Court’s First Division that it was “erroneous to assume that any roads constructed above the aqueducts would automatically affect the aqueduct.”
“At present, there are portions of the aqueduct which are under the Commonwalth, Luzon and Tandang Sora avenues. The aqueducts to this day are intact and serve the water needs of eight million residents of Metro Manila,” said Agra.
Agra was arguing in defense of the MWSS which—along with the Department of Public Works and Highways—was impleaded in a petition filed by a barangay chief of Barangay Old Balara who asked the high court to issue a TRO against the Public Works project, warning it would affect the MWSS aqueducts.
Agra said the aqueducts underneath the Capitol Golf Club where the C-5 Extension Project would pass through are buried at least 20 meters deep while those in Luzon, Tandang Sora and Commonwealth avenues are about 7 meters deep.
The high court has given the government and the petitioner 10 days to submit their memoranda before it rules on the petition.
Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane earlier said that the road project—which will link the North and South Luzon expressways—would not displace informal settlers and still save the government P600 million in foregone cost of building another route. Rey E. Requejo
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