Half of water supply still lost to leaks

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

Metro Iloilo’s water provider, Metro Pacific Iloilo Water (MPIW), said on Saturday that low supply in some areas of the city and neighboring municipalities were due to leaks and supply concerns.

MPIW is a joint venture of the publicly owned Metro Iloilo Water District, and the Manny Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Water, a subsidiary of Metro Pacific Investments Corp.

The new water company, which was launched on July 1, 2019, currently serves Iloilo City and the neighboring municipalities of Pavia, Leganes, Oton, Sta. Barbara, Cabatuan, San Miguel, and Maasin.

In an interview with Daily Guardian on Air over Aksyon Radyo Iloilo on Saturay, MPIW’s commercial division head John Cañonero revealed that 50 percent of their supply (or non-revenue water) is lost to old and leaky pipelines.

On average, the company supplies around 73 to 75 million liters per day (MLD) of water to 42,505 customers.

The company currently has three water suppliers, its “sister company” Metro Iloilo Bulk Water, which supplies 35 to 45 MLD; the Florete-owned Flo Water, which supplies 15 MLD; and the Villar-owned Prime Water, which supplies 10 MLD.

“We studied the existing conditions handed over. We saw a lot that needed to be fixed, especially in the state of our distribution lines. Some of our lines were pre-war or even 1920s. That is why we’re currently studying. Because our supply, based on our study, almost 50 percent is non-revenue water. This is what gets lost, mostly [from] physical problems and leaks. That’s what also contributes often to low pressure and lack of water supply, because of those physical losses,” Cañonero said.

According to Cañonero, water pressure is low, thus, supply in other areas, notably in the city proper area, is also limited.

“Our supply does fluctuate but only slightly, not to the extent that it would be responsible for [a loss of supply]. Because of the limited supply, the flow of water is regulated on a rotational basis, with a schedule so we can distribute water equitably in all areas. So, there would be times, like in Mandurriao, from 6 am to 5 pm, that water is available. But we’re also looking at how we can improve it. We constantly regulate the water,” he said.

Cañonero added they have divided their service area into three smaller “business areas” to identify the leaks.

Business Area 1 includes Maasin, Cabatuan, Sta. Barbara, and Pavia towns. Business Area 2 includes the Jaro and Mandurriao districts of Iloilo City, and Leganes town. Business Area 3 includes Iloilo City Proper and Oton and San Miguel towns.

“We have installed slow meter gauges and pressure gauges so we can detect along the distribution lines where the pressure goes lower, and we can check. We’re identifying, studying, and breaking down [our service area] into three business areas so we can focus where this is coming from. We have an ongoing study to pinpoint within the three business areas, the source of our physical losses, down to the District Meter Areas or DMAs. Once we have formed everything, we can determine where we can focus our rehabilitation and programs to recover the lost water,” he said.

 

Cañonero said that in hard-to-reach places within their service area, where water pressure is lower, the MPIW conducts “tankering”, or injecting more water through their pipelines.

“There are areas right now, that because of issues on water pressure, we do tankering twice a day by injecting [water] through our lines so they can have supply of water. [These] are [in areas] which cannot be reached by the water, when along the way there is already great consumption,” he said.

He added that their main focus right now is on repairing leaks and rehabilitating and replacing their pipelines through outside contractors so that they can be able to move to other projects.

“Our improvements are focused on leak repairs, because that is our [main issue]. We’re working on them in-house. For the volume, we were thinking of bidding out contractors so we can have fast and massive replacements. Unfortunately, the bids failed twice and the pandemic added, so it will be delayed a little. Luckily, we started again recently, someone won during the bidding which we can contract out. The first focus, really, is to recover the lost water.”

Cañonero explained that people who traverse the roads in the Metro Iloilo area can definitely notice the leaks.

“You can see it sometimes along the way when you’re travelling, let’s say from the [Iloilo International Airport], you can see that the roads are wet while the weather is dry and hot. Those are leaks spilling. Based on our study, 80 percent of the lost water is physical. Sometimes, there are road excavations which unnoticeably bump into [the pipes]. [Pilferage] is around 20 percent, there are also those taking water without meters. There are also cases of under-reading,” he said.

He confirmed that the focus of their improvements is on Jaro and Mandurriao districts where there have been many economic and residential improvements over the years.

“[We’re focused on] Jaro and Mandurriao, but there are also other areas. What’s happening is that in Maasin, the [pipes’] endpoint is Mandurriao and [City Proper]. That’s why we’re focusing on them, because there are already a lot of improvements, like at the old airport [site] where there have been many great developments such as BPOs and hotels, so we are preparing for the demand there,” he said.

Cañonero encouraged the public to report any leaks they see, saying it would be a great help to them and to all consumers.

“If they see leaks, they can report that to us, and we appreciate it as a great help if they can report so we can act on it immediately, because it’s really a waste of [leaked] water which we can actually add to our supply,” he said.

 

 

PANDEMIC EFFECTS

Like all commercial businesses, MPIW was also affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Cañonero said that primarily, their movement was stilted when the pandemic began, affecting their operations and their billing and collection systems.

“The effect of the pandemic is that it has limited our movement, especially with physical distancing, so it has significantly affected our operations. The distribution of our bills has been affected, as well as the reading, and we can’t go around because of the pandemic,” he said.

Cañonero said they billed consumers based on their previous consumption history and averaged them until such time that they were able to able to go around again to check the water meters.

“We did measures like averaging of consumption, because we had no basis for actual reading. We based it on their historical [consumption data], from their previous consumption. We averaged from there, like trending, we added and divided them, and that’s what we put, and then when we were able to return to reading and got the actual consumption, we adjusted that,” he said.

MPIW observed a shift in consumption volume, from commercial establishments to residential areas, mainly due to the community quarantine measures implemented by local government units.

Cañonero said, however, that the shift wasn’t that significant in terms of ranking, because hospitals surged to being the number one driver of the consumption volume.

“[Heavy consumption] has shifted to the residential [areas]. Before, commercial [areas] did have heavy usage, government offices were 100 percent in operation, so commercial [areas] really drove the business. But it gradually shifted to the residential [areas], because everyone was at home, and most people aggressively handwashed, and even took baths twice a day. [The discrepancy] wasn’t that much, because in our top 20, most of the driver of our volume is the hospitals. There are a few malls and a few industrial companies there as well,” he said.

 

 

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS 

Cañonero said they have further improvements in the next three years to be undertaken by the one-year-old joint venture corporation.

The current Chief Operating Officer of the MPIW is Ben Mañosca, who has extensive experience with water utility companies both at home and abroad.

Cañonero said that the MPIW has a big budget lined up, and they are initially starting with looking for a contractor who can temporarily provide water from other sources while they wait for the completion of the Jalaur River Multipurpose Project.

“We have a big budget, specifically in this joint venture. That’s why we have projects lined up in the first three years. We have a lot of high-budget projects lined up to improve the existing distribution lines. Right now, we are exploring other sources [of water]. We are negotiating with contractors who are helping us look for other sources while waiting, because one of our [major sources] will be the Jalaur River [Dam], which is still not done, so we’re looking through contractors to find immediate solutions,” Cañonero said.

Based on the Joint Venture Agreement between the MIWD and MPIC, the MPIW should reduce the level of non-revenue water (NRW) to 35 percent, water pressure should be limited to between 7 to 10 parts per square inch (psi), water availability of about 20 by 7 cubic meters, and increase service coverage level by 35 percent.

“On our first five years, we have to reduce our NRW at 35 percent. There’s required pressure, 7 to 10 psi, water availability, 20 by 7 [cubic meters]. Our service coverage level is also included in our mandate, to increase up to 35 percent, meaning the served population should increase by the fifth year. That’s stipulated [in the contract], so that lays our projects so we can comply our mandate,” he said.

Cañonero also explained the presence of Value-Added Tax in the consumers’ bills, saying that these are absorbed by MPIW and are not being charged to the customers, which is also part of the JVA.

“Our water tariff, since the handover, remained at 20 for the first 10 cubic meters, so there are no increases. There are those saying that in their billing statement, the VAT is included, but we absorb the VAT and do not pass them on to our consumers as part of the JVA. We just place it there for [taxation] purposes,” he said.

Despite the MIWD’s past aggressions with Flo Water and Prime Water, MPIW’s relationship with the two suppliers remains stable.

“We have a good relationship with [Flo Water and Prime Water]. We communicate, and they update on water interruptions, cleaning, and shutdowns. We coordinate with them and they inform us. So far, there are no problems with communication, and we have a good relationship,” he said.

MPIW’s office is currently located at the second floor of the MIWD Building at Bonifacio Drive (beside the Hall of Justice), but Cañonero said that they will be moving to their new office at the Festive Mall Annex soon once it finishes.