Manila Water prioritizes water access to low-income b’gays

MANILA, Philippines - Ayala-led Manila Water vowed to further improve the delivery of safe and potable water to its customers in the East Zone concession area, especially to the 1.7 million low-income group through its “Tubig Para Sa Barangay” project.

The World Bank-administered Global Partnership for Output-Based Aid (GPOBA) earlier had cited the project for its innovativeness in making piped-water available to low-income communities.

Manila Water East Zone Business Operations Group director Ferdinand de la Cruz said the company’s commitment to provide world-class service to all customers remains.

“We will continue with our vision of water and sanitation for all, the right to water access, right to safe and potable water and right to sustainable water supply even as we have already boosted the delivery of safe and potable water from 440 million liters per day in 1997 to the present 1,143 million liters per day,” said De la Cruz.

De la Cruz made the statement when he spoke at a recent forum in the University of the Philippines (UP) dubbed as “Grounding Water: Human Rights-Based Approach to Water and Sanitation for All” where he cited United Nations Resolution 64/292 Article 31 that everyone has the right to clean and accessible water, adequate for the health and well-being of the individual and family, and no one shall be deprived of such access or quality due to individual economic circumstance.

To date, Manila Water has installed a total of 902,289 water service connections providing 24/7 clean and potable water to more than 6.2 million in eastern Metro Manila and several towns of Rizal province.

From 6.2 million customers served, 1.7 million actually belonged to “base of the pyramid” communities or the urban poor sector.

Aside from providing safe and potable water, De la Cruz said Manila Water has also improved access to sanitation at the East Zone concession area which promotes health and protection of the environment.

“We need to expand our discussions on wastewater in Metro Manila because of a rapidly growing population with an estimated 94 million in 2011 in Metro Manila alone. Aside from that, most septic tanks installed are bottomless pits while only seven percent of the total population is connected to sewer networks,” De la Cruz added.

To date, Manila Water has installed 109, 717 sewer connections that served 158,242 households at its concession area, surpassing its proposed target of 106,000 sewerage connections under the 2008 rate rebasing scheme.