Manila Water forges sustainability pact with Taguig

MANILA, Philippines - Ayala-led Manila Water signed recently a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Taguig City local government forging a stronger alliance between the company and the LGU.

The agreement guarantees increased benefits for the residents through increased protection of waterways, water supply reliability and environmental sustainability.

With the milestone agreement, a roadmap now clearly lays out programs that will help achieve continuous growth for the city through the provision of reliable water supply and protection of the environment that will be provided by Manila Water through its water and wastewater master plan that is incorporated in the MOU.

The city of Taguig, known as the “Global City,” is rapidly transforming into a modern metropolis that is being driven by the growth and development of its residential and commercial areas.

Taguig Mayor Laarni Cayetano signed the MOU together with Manila Water president and CEO Gerardo C. Ablaza Jr., and Manila Water East Zone Business Operations Group director Ferdinand Dela Cruz at the Sangguniang Panlunsod session hall.

“We are pleased to be in partnership with Taguig as Manila Water implements a wide range of water and wastewater projects that will support Taguig’s development and provide sustained benefits for its residents,” said Ablaza.

Cayetano, in response, expressed   optimism for the future, vowing to take the lead to protect the environment.

Manila Water is currently implementing the Taguig Central Sewage Treatment Plant located in Barangay Wawa and the Taguig North Sewage Treatment Plant inside the Libingan ng mga Bayani compound.

Meanwhile, Manila Water Co. has brought down its system loss or non-revenue water to 11 percent at the end of 2011 from a high of 63 percent when it took over the East Zone concession in 1997.

The high system loss in eastern Metro Manila in 1997 could be attributed to leaking pipes, proliferation of illegal connections and defective under-registering water meters. With no new water source, other than Angat which provides 97 percent of the water supply in the whole Metro Manila, Manila Water went on an aggressive system loss reduction program, combining technical and engineering solutions with social interventions to address water theft.

Along with engineering innovations to address the leaks, Manila Water was quick to realize that a sizeable portion of the losses were due to illegal connections.

To address this, Manila Water launched its flagship program in 1998 called Tubig Para Sa Barangay (TPSB) or Water for the Poor program designed to make piped water available to low-income communities and informal settlements where illegal connections were then very rampant.

To date, Manila Water has completed more than 700 TPSB projects benefiting more than 1.7 million from the marginalized sector. 

Water recovered from the non-revenue water reduction initiatives of Manila Water has reached more than 650 million liters per day, enough to build a medium-sized dam which would have cost about P25 billion to build. This is the same water that now flows to the taps of previously unserved and underserved areas such as Taguig and now reaches the mountain city of Antipolo and several towns of Rizal Province.

The Manila Water Non-Revenue Water Strategy has been awarded as the Water Efficiency Project of the Year during the 2010 Global Water Awards as well as the Global Grand Prize Winner in the Operations/Management category of the 2010 International Water Association Project Innovation Awards.