Manila Water Company: Manila Water cops Intel-AIM CSR Award

Manila Water cops Intel-AIM CSR Award

Posted: Monday November 5, 2007

Very few companies have perfectly aligned its business objectives with its corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) commitments and use CSER programs as a key strategy in delivering the desired business results. Manila Water is one fine example of these companies whose CSER commitments and programs have already transcended the usual philanthropic activities.

As a company that lives and breathes CSER, the Intel-AIM Award for Corporate Social Responsibility has been unanimously given to Manila Water in the recent staging of the Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (AFCSR) held in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Manila Water has been cited for its various CSER programs that include its flagship program of Tubig Para Sa Barangay (TPSB) or Water for the Community Program, livelihood initiatives under the Kabuhayan Para Sa Barangay (KPSB) and a host of water and sanitation programs for service institutions generally patronized by the urban poor. These service institutions include schools, hospitals, markets, jails and penitentiaries and orphanages.

Since Manila Water derives its resources from the environment, it has pioneered efforts in wastewater treatment and sanitation programs that include free septic tank desludging. This is in response to curb the current menace of more than 60% domestic wastewater polluting our river ways and systems. The East Zone concessionaire has also intensified its watershed management program by forging partnerships with nearly twenty (20) different institutions to save the already denuded Ipo Watershed area. Manila Water is also heavily involved in groundwater protection as a means of protecting our underground water reserves.

The special award was given by the AFCSR for the first time to a company which has demonstrated its ability to develop business cases to sustainability and espousing the philosophy that doing good is actually good business. Manila Water’s Group Director for Human Resource and Corporate Services Ruel T, Maranan accepted the award during the gala dinner of the Asia’s premier conference on CSER.