Consumers given until September to settle water bills

MANILA, Philippines — Consumers have until the end of September to settle their water bills, which means that no disconnection of services should happen in the next two months.

The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) ordered Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Co. Inc. to extend the grace period until the end of the third quarter for consumers to settle their bills accumulated during quarantine.

MWSS chief regulator Patrick Ty said water firms should suspend service disconnection activities, resolve billing inquiries and complaints and provide customers ample time to update payments for accumulated water bills.

“The directive was initiated on the basis of humanitarian and public health considerations and with the intention of providing further economic relief to customers,” Ty said.

“This is also in addition to the staggered and installment payment schemes currently in effect for quarantine period water bills,” he said.

In response, both Maynilad and Manila Water agreed to the extension of bills payment ordered by MWSS.

“We extended the payment deadline to the end of September. We acknowledge that our customers need more elbow room for the settling of bills that may have accumulated during the lockdown,” Maynilad said.

“We will comply and implement the latest directive of MWSS, as we always have, extending payment and no disconnection service until Sept. 30 to help alleviate the current plight of our customers,” Manila Water added.

Prior to the extension, non-lifeline accounts or those consuming 10 cubic meters or more in a month would have until Aug. 1 to pay their bills.

For lifeline accounts or those consuming less than 10 cubic meters a month, service disconnections were supposed to resume on Sept. 1 if they don’t settle their bills.

It was March 21 when both water firms temporarily suspended their meter reading and billing to comply with the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon.

The March 17 to May 31 water bill of affected east zone and west zone customers were computed based on the average consumption for the past three months before the lockdown was imposed.

MWSS said ensuring the availability of water for all is of utmost importance, especially during this time when such resources are most essential for hand washing and hygiene to curb the pandemic.

It said it would continue to proactively operationalize measures to aid customers and protect consumer welfare amid the pandemic.