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The World Bank has cited some inroads in the long-delayed Metro Manila flood control project, which is being partly funded by a loan it approved eight years ago.
"The progress is moderately satisfactory with 38 pumping station construction sites and solid waste reduction activities," the Washington-based multilateral lender said in a May 5 implementation status and results report for the Metro Manila flood management project.
"Important actions by the MMDA [Metropolitan Manila Development Authority] and the DPWH [Department of Public Works and Highways] are needed to advance project implementation and meet the November 2026 deadline," the report added. This investment project financing (IPF), which was greenlit by the World Bank way back in 2017, will lapse before the end of next year.
The World Bank urged the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the DPWH, and the MMDA—the project's joint implementing agencies—to expedite the rehabilitation of the Tripa de Gallina pumping station, monitor new pumping station contractors, complete the feasibility study for material recovery facilities (MRFs) by August this year, and "[ensure] all activities are completed by September 2026."
The World Bank has maintained its "moderate" overall risk rating for this project.
As the project loan's closing date nears, the Philippine government has disbursed only 47.03 percent, or $86.98 million, out of the $184.94-million IPF to date.
The challenge is to spend the remaining loan proceeds—amounting to a bigger $97.95 million—before they lapse in just 1.5 years' time.
As Manila Bulletin reported earlier, the Philippine government and the World Bank in November 2024 signed amendments to their loan agreement for the original $207.6-million project financing, including a two-year extension of the originally seven-year loan implementation period, which was supposed to lapse last year.
To recall, the Philippines in 2017 borrowed a combined $415.2 million from the World Bank and the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to bankroll the bulk of the costs for this project, which is intended to protect 1.7 million Filipinos living near 56 "potentially critical" drainage systems across 11,110 hectares (ha) of flood-prone areas in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Through the national budget, the government would shell out the remaining $84.8 million for this $500-million flood control project.
However, implementation had been sluggish—starting with project design, as well as determining the number and location of drainage and pumping station sites. It did not help that red tape delayed procurement.
Since the project's rollout was prolonged, the larger implication is that the Philippines missed its original goal of completing it last year to make targeted areas free of water within 24 hours after a major rainfall.
Had this World Bank- and AIIB-backed project been implemented as scheduled, flooding experienced in the aftermath of last year's strong typhoons that battered Metro Manila could have been avoided.
On top of the prolonged loan closing date, the World Bank has also agreed to the Philippine government’s proposal to slash $22.7 million each from the two lenders’ counterpart financing.
Despite scaling back the loan terms, the Philippines will continue to repay these concessional or low-interest loans over a 25-year period, inclusive of a 14-year grace period under the original agreement in 2017.
While loan restructuring documents seen by Manila Bulletin last year partly blamed the most stringent lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic for the slow rollout, the World Bank also lamented that "frequent changes within the MMDA leadership (five chairmen in five years) further impacted procurement and disbursements."
"The sum of these challenges set project implementation back by roughly two years," the World Bank said last year.
