East Zone concessionaire Manila Water bagged five Anvil Awards at the Public Relations Society of the Philippines’ 55th Gabi ng Parangal Anvil Awards Night held at the Fiesta Pavillion, Manila Hotel, One Rizal Park, Manila.

Manila Water has declared a consolidated net income of ₱5.5 billion for 2019, which is lower by 16% from 2018 figures. This has been anticipated considering the challenges the company faced last year, with the East Zone concession severely impacted by the water supply shortage in March. The decline in La Mesa dam water levels caused water service availability to drop significantly, with La Mesa dam reaching its lowest level at 68.5 meters in April 2019. In July last year, raw water allocation from Angat Dam hit its lowest, with releases limited to 35 cubic meters per second for the MWSS Concessionaires. To mitigate the impact of low raw water supply, Manila Water pushed for network efficiency to maintain service availability, with at least 7 pounds per square inch (psi) of pressure, enough to reach the ground floor level, enabling it to serve more than 7 million people in the East Zone with safe and reliable water supply, covering over 1.3 million households and with more than 5,000 kilometers of network pipeline.

The Department of Health (DOH) Metro Manila Center for Health Development has recently approved the renewal of Manila Water Laboratory Services’ laboratory accreditation until 2022. With this accreditation, the DOH aims to maintain the quality of drinking water fit for public consumption in compliance with the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water (PNSDW). The accreditation also allows MWLS to perform chemical, physical, and microbiological analysis even on samples taken outside of Metro Manila’s East Zone, and results of which will be recognized and accepted by DOH. Likewise, MWLS registered zero non-conformity on the recently concluded assessment of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as part of its recognition and certification of MWLS as an environmental laboratory.

Prime Metroline Holdings Inc., on behalf of a company to be incorporated, signed with Manila Water a Subscription Agreement for the acquisition of 820 Mn common shares of Manila Water which represents a 25% stake in the Company at a price of Php13/share. The entry of Prime, which is led by businessman Enrique Razon Jr., as a strategic investor to Manila Water is expected to bolster Manila Water’s ability to provide reliable, efficient and sustainable water and wastewater services in the East Zone and at the same time pursue growth initiatives both domestically and globally. The Razon group brings with it its expansive global reach and business expertise; with operations in Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, to Manila Water.