Manila Water Company: Manila Water pursues P350-M service improvement program for Mandaluyong

Manila Water pursues P350-M service improvement program for Mandaluyong

Posted: Friday June 15, 2007

Manila Water Company, Inc. has embarked on a P350-million service enhancement program in Mandaluyong City designed to ensure not only uninterrupted supply of safe and clean water, but also greatly improve public sanitation in the city.

The service enhancement program puts an exclamation point to Manila Water’s city-wide pipe-laying and mainline replacement operation launched in 2002. Such activities are still in program at West Greenhills, Boni Avenue, P. Cruz Street, Shaw Boulevard, and the northbound and southbound portions of EDSA.

A key component of the program was the implementation of the P355-million Kalentong Line Project that boosted water supply to the higher portions of Mandaluyong, and the replacement of more than 94 kilometers of pipes within the city. Completion of these projects resulted to 24-hour water supply to the barangays of Pleasant Hills, Mauway, Buwayang Bato, Barangka Itass, Julo, Namayan, Mabini, J. Rizal, Pag-asa, Harapin ang Bukas, Burol, Hagdang Bato Itaas and Vergara.

Since 1997, Manila Water has spent P624 million for various service improvement projects in the city which redounded to greater public access to high-pressure, 24-hour water supply which dramatically increased to 100 percent of the city’s households and offices, along with service institutions such as schools, hospitals, markets, orphanages and even the jails.
At the same time, the company attained significant reduction in system’s losses, with the water recovered now being channeled to the formerly low pressure areas of the city.

More than 50 projects under Manila Water’s flagship “Tubig Para sa Barangay” or Water for the Community program have been completed for the low-income communities.

Sewerage and sanitation services have also been intensified in the city. The Mandaluyong Medium Rise Housing was one of the beneficiaries of the Manila Second Sewerage Project (MSSP) – Community Sanitation Project, implemented in coordination with the National Housing Authority.

Over the next five years, Manila Water will expand its sewerage and sanitation program for Mandaluyong that includes the construction of a sewage treatment plant along the banks of the Pasig River. Corollary to this, its “Sanitasyon Para Sa Barangay” or Community Sanitation Program involving free desludging of household septic tanks was shifted to high gear.

Prior to the privatization of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) in 1997, Mandaluyong was struggling with low and insufficient water supply, with only five of its 27 barangays having faucet water although on limited basis.

The city’s pipe networks were very old and leaking, giving rise to incidence of water-borne diseases associated with leaking pipes. Such health problems were particularly prevalent in the depressed communities of Welfareville, Pag-asa and Nueve de Pebrero.