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Urban living conditions will be substantially improved in seven Subic Bay area municipalities, one of the Philippines' major centers of economic development, with the help of a US$22 million loan approved today by the Asian Development Bank.
The Subic Bay Municipal Development Project will see the construction, upgrading, or repairing of basic urban infrastructure, including water supply, solid waste management, roads and bridges, drainage, flood control, and local markets. A second key element will be developing the human resources of local government units (LGU).
The project covers Olongapo City, and the municipalities of Subic Town, Castillejos, and San Marcelino in Zambales Province; and the municipalities of Dinalupihan, Hermosa, and Morong in Bataan Province. It will benefit about 280,000 people living in the area, about 35 percent of whom are urban poor.
Since the US Navy forces pulled out of their base at Subic in 1991, the population of the area has increased rapidly, encouraged by the revival of economic and industrial activity in the Subic Bay Freeport and Special Economic Zone. The zone has 260 industries and commercial establishments and employment is predicted to rise to 260,000 by the year 2005 from the present 36,000.
However, basic urban services are inadequate to cope with demand, with the poor, who mostly live in low-lying flood-prone areas, suffering in particular. Water, for instance, in most municipalities is supplied only in certain parts of towns, serving a limited number of households. San Marcelino and Castillejos have no municipal water supply.
The long-term aim of the project is to improve basic living conditions, public health, and the urban environment, in line with the ADB’s strategic focus on human development and balanced growth.
About 1,100 trainees, 900 LGU staff, and 200 community representatives will receive practical training in specialized areas, such as urban planning and management. Productivity will also be enhanced through the provision of new office equipment such as computers, fax machines and photocopiers.
The subprojects will include the expansion of water supplies through drilling deep wells and the provision of pumping facilities and a distribution network; two sanitary landfill sites for solid waste, 22 km of improved roads and a new bridge over the Kalaklan River, and drainage channels, riverbank protection and desilting to head off flooding.
The executing agencies for the project, which is scheduled for completion by the end of 2002, will be the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA). This excepts the water supply component, which will be handled by the Local Water Utilities Administration.
The project’s total cost is estimated at US$37 million, of which the Government of Spain will provide a US$1 million grant, the Philippine Government through the DILG and SBMA US$2.5 million and US$4.2 million respectively, and the LGUs and water districts US$7.3 million. The ADB loan will come from ordinary capital resources, repayable over 25 years, including a grace period of 5 years. The interest rate will be determined in accordance with the Bank's pool-based variable lending rate for US dollar loans.