MANILA, Philippines — Maynilad Water Services Inc.’s customers in southern Metro Manila will experience supply interruptions for up to three days, starting on Sunday, due to major repairs that will be conducted on a primary line that lies on the border of Makati and Manila.
In a media briefing yesterday, Maynilad supply operations head Ronaldo Padua said the company will conduct a major leak repair on a 2.2-meter diameter primary line along Osmena Highway’s intersection with Zobel Roxas from 3 p.m. on March 5 to 11:59 p.m. on March 7.
The repair activity would affect the water supply of 114,000 water service connections or roughly 580,000 customers in portions of Manila, Makati, Parañaque and Pasay.
Padua said the leak was discovered during one of Maynilad’s routine pipe network inspections using various acoustic leak detection equipment.
Maynilad will determine the extent of damage once it excavates the site and fully exposes the damaged pipe.
“If there is a need to extend, we will immediately notify affected customers of the extension,” Padua said.
Initially, Maynilad scheduled service interruptions of 20 hours up to 57 hours, he said.
The supply interruption is unavoidable given that the pipe is the only line delivering water from the La Mesa treatment plant all the way to Parañaque City.
While the service interruption is in place, Maynilad will also take the opportunity to repair leaks and inspect pipes in other areas and maintenance work on the Villamor and Espiritu pumping stations.
Maynilad will provide 27 roving waer tankers in Makati, Parañaque and Pasay and three more in Manila, AVP for business area operations Zmel Grabillo said.
“There will also be seven stationary water tankers available. We’re also looking at three more that can be deployed,” Padua said.
Maynilad will also tap the assistance of local government units and local fire bureaus to expand the available fleet of water tankers that can help deliver water to affected communities.
Maynilad said the repairs need to be done in preparation for summer and to prevent further damage to Maynilad’s pipeline and the roads it is aligned with.
It is also part of the company’s water loss recovery within its network.
Once the leak is repaired, the company estimates a water loss recovery of around 20 to 30 million liters per day.