Manila Water increases service connections

The Manila Water Co. Inc. continues to rev up  service connections in its concession area amid the looming El Niño problem, an official said.

The company said in a statement it has added 13,260 new connections in the first half of 2015, pushing its total closer to a million service connections, or at 962,490.

Jeric Sevilla, officer in charge of Manila Water’s corporate strategic affairs group, said more service connections are slated to be implemented, particularly in the towns of Rizal.

“This is part of our commitment to make potable water more accessible to the fringe areas,” Sevilla said.

Sevilla said Manila Water continues to prepare plans to be able to mitigate the impact from the El Niño threat, which may further intensify during the last quarter of the year as projected by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

The National Water Resources Board (NWRB) also said water supply at the Angat Dam—where Metro Manila and adjacent provinces source water for irrigation and domestic use—was still sufficient, but would need proper management to ensure future demand is properly addressed.

“There is no water crisis at this time,” NWRB executive director Sevillo D. David Jr. said in a briefing last month, noting that there was still continuous supply for household use.

However, the Angat Dam management has cut off the release of water supply for irrigation purposes in early July.

Manila Water said 90 percent of its service connections cover residential customers while 4 percent represent semi-business customers.  These represent some 1.36 million households in Metro Manila and Rizal.

The firm also services commercial and industrial clients, which account for 5 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

The Ayala-led concessionaire of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System provides services to the so-called east zone, which covers parts of Quezon City and Manila, Marikina, Pasig, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Pateros, Makati, Taguig and Rizal province.