Manila Water reports system loss down to 11%

MANILA, Philippines - BOC revives plan to transform Port of San Fernando East Zone water and wastewater concessionaire Manila Co. announced during its  recent stockholders’ meeting that it has made significant headway in reducing its  waterloss to an unprecedented level of 11 percent, better than most of its Asian counterparts.

Manila Water said that because of the water recovery and high efficiency level,  the company has managed water supply effectively and maintain 24/7 water services to its customers amidst the cyclical patterns of El Niño since 1997.

Water loss or non-revenue water (NRW) occurs in the distribution network due  to illegal connections, leaking pipes and defective meters. Recovery of NRW is  crucial in sustaining the demand for water supply brought on by the steady   increase in population growth raising water demand.

Manila Water started its operations more than 13 years ago and has since  adopted a multi-pronged approach to reduce its system loss so that water  recovered can be rechanneled and redistributed to previously unserved and underserved areas.

The holistic approach combins technical and engineering solutions with social  and community interventions, which has drastically reduced NRW by 52 percent from a high of 63 percent in 1997. Water coverage has equivalently increased from only 26 percent in 1997 at the onset of the privatization of state-owned Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) to more than 99  percent to date.

The volume of water recovered from the NRW reduction programs has reached more than 650 million liters per day, equivalent to the volume of water which could be impounded in a medium-sized dam.

Manila Water said it has invested nearly P50 billion in capital expenditures for  the rehabilitation of old lines and laying of new water pipes which has now  reached more than 3,400 kilometers. New lines have addressed the perennially  

leaking pipelines which date back since the Spanish and Japanese era.

Water recovered from these programs has been pushed to the elevated city of  Antipolo, the eastern towns of San Mateo and Rodriguez as well as to the southern city of Taguig.

Manila Water also pursued an aggressive meter replacement program to address  leaking and defective meters which may cause under-registration of consumption  of its 6.1 million customers. Curbing illegal connections is also being addressed by the company.