ADB is considering providing Manila Water with a private-sector project loan to fund implementation of a wastewater treatment system once the study is completed.

The 27-kilometer-long Pasig River was once used by locals as a source of drinking water and fish, and a place to swim, but in recent decades it has been polluted by the increasing amounts of untreated sewage brought by rapid urbanization and insufficient sanitation systems. Like other major river systems in Metro Manila, the Pasig River is now biologically dead, damaging the health and livelihoods of Manila's 11 million inhabitants.#