With the recent news on Maynilad’s Initial Public Offering and potential injection of billions in pesos in funds, it is worth studying the private concessionaires of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), specifically how far is the reach of the two water and sewage titans beyond their franchises in the nation’s capital.
Maynilad Water Services, Inc. operates the West Zone of the National Capital Region and is the largest private water concessionaire in the Philippines based on customer base. It provides services to a large portion of Manila, Quezon City, Makati, Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas, Malabon, and areas of Cavite Province.
But the company doesn’t only make a name for itself in the Philippines.
On the global front, Maynilad’s Parañaque New Water Plant won the 2023 Global Water Awards and bagged the Water Reuse Project of the Year 2023. This facility supplies 10 million liters of recycled water per day through an advanced process using wastewater from the Parañaque Wastewater Treatment Plant to produce drinkable water, making it the first of its kind in Asia.
Maynilad is also active in knowledge sharing and helping other countries develop their capacities. Through the Maynilad Water Academy, it partnered with the Asian Development Bank for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cities Improvement Project (KPCIP) of Pakistan where it techniques on the management of Non-Revenue Water (NRW) – water lost due to physical (old or broken pipes), commercial (illegal water connections), or through data (faulty meters and errors in billing) issues.
They aim to reduce waste in clean water, recover lost income, and ultimately lower costs for the consumers.
On the other side of the capital, Manila Water Company, Inc. services the East Zone with the areas of Mandaluyong, Makati, Pasig, Pateros, San Juan, Taguig, Marikina, parts of Quezon City, and portions of Manila and Parañaque, as well as several towns in Rizal.
This corporation is more outward-expanding, establishing Manila Water Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (MWAP) in 2010 with holdings in other ASEAN and Middle Eastern nations.
In Vietnam, Manila Water supplies clean water to the capital of Ho Chi Minh City through two large treatment plants. In Indonesia, it has partnered with a local water agency targeting to fix physical losses.
Manila Water is also in Thailand, where they own 18.72% of a large water company that supplies both raw and treated water to the eastern Thailand industrial zones, as well as operations in three provinces and services in 11 areas.
In Saudi Arabia, Manila Water entered into two joint ventures in 2020 to oversee water and wastewater in specific sections of the country.
