MANILA: More than 7.4 million people in the East Zone of Metro Manila and Rizal province are now enjoying a clean and potable water supply “24/7”, according to the Manila Water Company (Manila Water).
“We have always been committed to addressing the increasing demand for water and wastewater services within our concession area. From 3.1 million customers in 1997, we are now able to extend our services to 7.4 million customers since we took over the operations of the water and wastewater system of the East Zone 25 years ago,” Jeric Sevilla, Group Head for Corporate Communications Affairs of Manila Water, said in a statement on Friday.
As of September 2022, Manila Water has installed a total of 1,142,884 water service connections, consisting of 1,088,097 domestic connections and 54,787 commercial and industrial connections.
These translate to a total of 7,446,386 people served.
“As we anticipate further increase in demand for reliable water supply, sewerage and sanitation services, we will continue to build infrastructure to ensure water security, service continuity and accessibility as well as promote environmental sustainability,” Sevilla said.
“These are the major pillars of our service improvement plan in the coming years,” he added.
Manila Water said one of the factors for this increase is its intensified service expansion program in Rizal.
In the third quarter of 2022, the water company was able to finish 40 pipelaying, mainline extension and individualization projects in Rizal which benefitted 13,500 families.
For the rest of the year, the Manila Water is scheduled to finish 10 more pipelaying projects in Rizal province, which is expected to benefit 3,469 additional families.
The connections to a sewer service were also up by 5,011 from 268,934 connections in July to 273,945 connections in September this year.
For those areas which are yet to be connected to Manila Water’s sewer network, the company maintains its regular desludging or septic tank siphoning program with an additional 11,014 septic tanks emptied during the same quarter as part of its regular desludging caravan.
With the continuous growth of population in Metro Manila and its nearby provinces, the water company recognizes the need to reach out to its underserved and unserved customers and provide them with uninterrupted piped-in water supply despite challenges in distance and terrain in its service area.
Source: Philippines News Agency
