Manila Water’s wasteful ways - CHASING THE WIND by Felipe B. Miranda

When the poor water service in UP's Diliman campus improved upon being turned over to Manila Water several years ago, I thanked a friend, former DILG Secretary Raffy Alunan III, who I thought headed the new company. Knowing his penchant for effective and efficient service, I believed that our improved situation reflected the efforts of a competent manager who understood public service, took his responsibility seriously and discharged it properly.

Raffy was happy hearing about the improvement but conscientiously refused my thanks, pointing out that he headed another company whose jurisdiction did not cover the UP Campus, that it was Manila Water which had responsibility for our area. In the last few months, I have had many occasions to rue that our own place had not been under his own competent care!

For about a year, Manila Water served its public in the UP campus well. However, in the traditional fashion of companies which do well initially and later somehow backslide into incompetence, inefficiency and much disregard for its constituency, Manila Water appears to have lost much that is commendable in its initial service.

Now, as in the days prior to Manila Water taking over the system serving UP, water would erratically and without adequate public notice disappear from the lines, leaving people in the midst of their cooking, washing and bathing without this basic human need. Sometimes, it would be for half an hour to an hour, sometimes for much longer, but hardly was it the case that people were properly informed about what was going on, what time the interruption would come and how long the inconvenience would be.

Repairs of reported leaks have taken longer and longer to be done. Where Manila Water attended to leaks in three to four days, now more than a week is normal and there is every possibility that it will even be longer in the near future.

The repairs – when done – are at best remedyo in nature, breaking down soon enough to reveal the same problem and forcing the affected public to repeatedly call Manila Water, as if people had no better thing to do with their lives than to become compulsive callers for Manila Water’s recurring leaks.

This disregard for the public does not bespeak fecklessness, but – going well beyond it – proceeds from an arrogant management’s premise that the public does not matter!

Manila Water has to work much harder to regain its former effectiveness in water delivery and improve on its highly-stressful public relations. At a time when people power appears to be able to force Presidents out of Malacañang, the Manila Water management ironically appears to believe that the public can go hang!

But, then again, who the gods will destroy, they first make mad. There is reason to suspect that some people in the Manila Water management – who may or may not have eaten enough imported beef – may already be suffering from certain parts of their cortical brain tissues becoming mushy and thus fail to understand the contradictory messages they send the much confounded and long-suffering public.

For instance, Manila Water properly advises the public to conserve water so that everyone may have enough of it at the time one needs it. Following their own lead, the company enjoins people to spot and report water leaks. Manila Water conscientiously provides the public with some telephone numbers and its employees who answer dutifully take note of the caller’s identity, the information he/she gives regarding location and nature of the problem and they also log the call by giving the caller a call reference number.

So far, so good. And then, unfortunately, not good enough. For nothing much happens within the next three to four days, or seven to 10 days, even if one regularly follows up the call. The caller is on hold, the problem is on hold and the reported problem worsens by the hour and the day. Water is wasted increasingly. And Manila Water continues to speak of water conservation.

I can personally attest to this situation, having first reported a strong water leak right in the middle of our street on campus last February 19, 2001, being assigned a call reference number (AA092214) and daily calling Manila Water (436-1000) for appropriate action since then. Up to now, Manila Water has failed to repair this leak and so the leak has worsened and the wastage of this scarce and vital resource has continued even as Manila Water piously proclaims how terrible it is for water to be wasted!

Two people are identified by their colleagues to be directly on top of this unforgivable situation. A Mr. Ponciano Dizon, the Manila Water’s Balara Business Area Manager and a Mr. Elmer Lago, its Water Service Territorial Controller are reportedly those in charge of acting on public complaints of this nature from this area of Diliman.

I doubt much whether these two people would stay long in a public service company headed by a properly demanding, truly public service-oriented official like Raffy Alunan III. In such a company, people who cannot produce good results in a reasonably short period of time join the ranks of the unemployed and perhaps the truly unemployable.