Maynilad water loss ratio down to 36% in 3 months

MANILA, Philippines —  West Zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services Inc. has brought down its non-revenue water (NRW) or water produced but unbilled to 36.2 percent in the first quarter compared to 41.3 percent in the same period last year.

The latest NRW level was also 2.2 percentage points lower than the 38.4 percent registered at the end of 2024.

NRW refers to the water produced by the utility firm but not billed to customers due to various reasons and losses.

“We built the momentum since last year wherein there was a significant NRW reduction that was carried over to 2025 as we have been consistently accelerating our programs like leak repairs,” Maynilad central NRW head Ryan Jamora said.

Maynilad is committed to hit its NRW target this year of 34 percent, a substantial improvement from the 66 percent NRW recorded before the water utility firm’s re-privatization in 2007.

“It is a challenging goal but we are leveraging advanced technologies and the expertise of our skilled teams to sustain water loss recovery across our network,” Jamora said.

Under its approved business plan, Maynilad will spend P31.46 billion from 2023 until 2027 for its NRW management program. In 2023 and 2024, the water utility firm spent a combined amount of P10.79 billion for its NRW reduction initiatives.

Maynilad still has to spend a total of around P20.67 billion this year until 2027 to meet its target of bringing down its NRW to 25 percent by 2027.

In the first quarter, the water utility firm already disbursed almost P1.15 billion for its NRW management program, about 20 percent higher than the P957.8 million recorded in the same period last year.

Maynilad further plans to slash its NRW to 20 percent by 2030 and keep it at that level until the end of its concession period by 2046.

The water utility firm incurs NRW due to physical losses, commercial losses and unbilled authorized consumption.

At least 90 percent of Maynilad’s NRW comes from pipe leaks while the remaining 10 percent are from what it calls as apparent or commercial losses, which cover unbilled water use like illegal connections and inaccurate metering and billing.

Maynilad said it employs a mix of technical and operational strategies to reduce its NRW that involves pipe replacement, active leakage control, meter management, district metered areas and network diagnostics.