Fixing water flow, restoring hope

Water is not just a resource — it is life itself. It fuels our bodies, kitchens, classrooms, hospitals and businesses. When it stops flowing, everything else stops with it.

As a Super El Niño looms and drier months approach, this truth becomes impossible to ignore. Water is not a convenience — it is a necessity that no family or community can afford to lose.

In the Philippines, the residents of Bulacan knows this better than most. For years, the province has made headlines for its water woes. In San Jose del Monte (SJDM), Bulacan, interruptions stretched from eight hours to as long as 18 hours a day. Several interviews narrated how families bought disposable plates to avoid washing dishes and used bottled water just to brush their teeth. The frustration piled up until the city declared a state of emergency, residents rallied, and the city government ended its arrangement with the previous operator.

The past cannot be undone, but it need not define the future. In SJDM, the work of fixing the water system has begun.

Just last May, SJDM signed an interim operations and maintenance agreement with Manuel V. Pangilinan (MVP)-led Metro Pacific Water. Subsidiary and operator Metro Pacific Bulacan Water (MPBW) has now completed its first 100 days. That is not long for a system neglected for years, but the numbers show work has begun in earnest. Reports say that average output rose to 145.09 million liters per day in September from 131.55 MLD in May, an increase of about 10 percent.

The company has been candid about the road ahead.  When MPBW took over, SJDM has a non-revenue water rate of around 47 percent. This means that a significant share of supply is lost through leaks or goes unaccounted for because of metering and other commercial losses. Likewise, only 11 of the city’s 34 pumping stations were operational. This limited the system’s ability to distribute water and maintain pressure, more so in elevated areas.

In its first 100 days, MPBW reported that it has repaired 789 of 1,135 detected and verified pipeline leaks. For the next 100 days, it will prioritize restoring pumping stations and reducing water losses, including calibrating flowmeters, pinpointing the areas with the highest losses and stepping up leak detection and repairs. The company is also assessing which pumping stations need rehabilitation or replacement.

Three deep wells have also been reactivated, adding 1.5 MLD of supply. Emergency deliveries continue too: MPBW made 6,833 tanker trips in its first 100 days, delivering 44.505 million liters across 51 barangays. Tanker fleet has grown to 22 from four, supported by 15 water lorries of the LGU. Two pipeline projects targeted for completion by December are expected to add up to 25 MLD of transfer capacity.

It is a story I have written about before: MVP is a nation-builder and the work being done in SJDM is a continuation of that narrative. Across his group, he has put capital and management into the services Filipinos depend on every day: power through Meralco, water in Metro Manila through Maynilad, roads like NLEX that move people and goods and the telecommunications through PLDT-Smart that keep us connected. The industries differ, but the thread is the same. Take an essential service, invest in it, and run it well so that Filipinos will benefit.

It is also a story of government and the private sector working together. The city did its part. It declared an emergency, passed the ordinance and acted decisively when residents could wait no longer. The private sector brought capital, engineers and operating experience. Neither could have fixed a system this size on its own.

City Administrator Rizaldy Mendoza’s pledge to keep monitoring the rehabilitation is exactly right. Trust in a utility is earned by results that residents can see and feel. When partnerships are forged, there is a need to set measurable targets, report progress publicly and keep asking whether the consumers can feel the difference.

I am hopeful, and not just as a columnist. Bulacan is close to my heart, with strong family ties, so every leak repaired and every household reached matters to me. A strong start is no guarantee, but it builds confidence. Public service is in the Metro Pacific DNA and MVP has shown time and again that when he takes on an essential service, he makes it work.

I look forward to the day when reliable water is a given in Bulacan and across the country. A mother should not have to stay awake past midnight to fill a drum. A student should be able to bathe before school. A small business owner should be able to open the doors without worrying about water. That will take investment, accountability, with government and the private sector pulling in the same direction, in every province.

Water is the most basic promise a community asks of its leaders and its utilities. In San Jose del Monte, it is beginning to be kept, let us keep it for every Filipino.