How La Mesa Dam became part of Metro Manila's water supply system

Manila, March 24 -- Did you know how La Mesa Dam in Novaliches, a former town now divided between Quezon City and Caloocan City, became part of the Angat-Ipo-La Mesa water system which supplies potable water to residents of the present Metropolitan Manila and nearby provinces?

According to the book "Ang Kasaysayan ng Novaliches" (History of Novaliches) published in 1997, La Mesa Dam, located about 20 kilometers northeast of Manila, was constructed in 1929, or during the American occupation of the Philippines.

The book, written by historians Dr. Emmanuel Franco Calairo and his mother, former University of the Philippines-Los Banos (UPLB) professor Rosalina Morales Franco-Calairo, narrated that between 1920 and 1926, the former Metropolitan...