MANILA, Philippines — Maynilad Water Services Inc. is investing P10 billion to replace a total of 477.2 kilometers of old, leaky pipes in its concession area over the next five years.
The west zone concessionaire said this is in line with its program to upgrade the distribution system and reduce water losses.
Once completed, this will bring the total length of pipes replaced within the west zone to 3,643 kilometers, which is 78 percent of the distribution system that the company inherited from the government upon re-privatization in 2007.
“When we took over Maynilad in 2007, the pipe network we inherited included the oldest water system in Asia. We are committed to upgrading our network for the benefit of our customers,” Maynilad chief operating officer Randolph Estrellado said in a statement.
From January to April, Maynilad has replaced pipes in North and South Caloocan, Quezon City, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela, Manila, Pasay, Paranaque, Imus, and Muntinlupa.
The company said these activities are being fast-tracked so the company can recover more water supply in preparation for El Niño.
For this year alone, Maynilad earmarked almost P4 billion for its Non-Revenue Water (NRW) management program, which is a 25 percent increase from its NRW capital expenditure of P3.2 billion last year.
The NRW management program aims to curb physical and commercial water losses. It involves pipe and meter replacements, active leakage control using state-of-the-art leak detection technology, district metered areas establishment and maintenance, and sustained network diagnostic activities.
To cushion the impact of any supply constraints arising from the effects of El Niño, Maynilad is eyeing alternate sources through supply augmentation projects which could generate around 163 million liters per day (MLD) of additional water supply.
These supply augmentation projects include the reactivation of 45 deep wells in the west zone.
It also covers the commissioning of two modular treatment plants in Cavite, tapping of additional cross-border points with Manila Water, construction of an auxiliary filtration system at Putatan water treatment plant, and production of an initial 50 MLD from its new water treatment plant in Poblacion, Muntinlupa.
According to the.company, the additional supply to be generated from these projects will help improve supply reliability for some 700,000 Maynilad customers in parts of Manila, Parañaque, Pasay, Muntinlupa, Las Piñas, and Cavite.
Maynilad is the largest private water concessionaire in the Philippines in terms of customer base.
It is the concessionaire of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) for the west zone of the Greater Manila Area, which is composed of the cities of Manila (certain portions), Quezon City (certain portions), Makati (west of South Super Highway), Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas and Malabon all in Metro Manila; the cities of Cavite, Bacoor and Imus, and the towns of Kawit, Noveleta and Rosario, all in Cavite Province.