MANILA, Philippines — East zone concessionaire Manila Water Co. Inc. said its laboratory services unit recently received accreditation until 2022 from the Department of Health (DOH) Metro Manila Center for Health Development.
In a statement, Manila Water said the DOH’s accreditation aims to maintain the quality of drinking water fit for public consumption in compliance with the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water (PNSDW).
“The accreditation also allows MWLS to perform chemical, physical and microbiological analysis even on samples taken outside of Metro Manila’s east zone, and results of which will be recognized and accepted by DOH,” Manila Water said.
Meanwhile, the company also announced that its laboratory services unit also registered zero non-conformity on the recently concluded assessment of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as part of its recognition and certification of MWLS as an environmental laboratory.
“The recognition, valid until 2021, is a result of an inspection and assessment done by a team comprised of the Board of Chemistry, the academe and industry experts as commissioned by the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB),” the company said.
Manila Water Laboratory Services said it has complied with the documentation, analytical performance and other requirements for reinstatement with zero non-conformity and only two recommendations for improvement.
“The assessors also cited MWLS as a model laboratory having consistently performed outstanding proficiency testing while maintaining a world-class facility,” it added.
Environmental laboratories, as defined by the DENR, are those authorized to generate environmental data for environmental impact assessment, environmental monitoring and research activities to support the formulation and implementation of government policies, criteria and rules and regulations on the protection of the environment.
To ensure that the water delivered to the customers satisfies regulatory standards on quality, MWLS processes an average of around 900 water samples from the distribution network per month, the company said on its website.
The samples are collected on a regular basis from strategically located sampling points all over the east zone.
“This number of sampling points surpasses the regulatory requirement and all results of the sampling have been consistently 100 percent compliant with the PNSDW, five percent above the requirement,” the company said.
It added that samples are then tested in the company’s ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited laboratory against more than 50 physical, chemical and bacteriological parameters.
MWLS also carries the ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications.