Manila Water
Clean water is such a vital resource that people will go to great lengths to get it.
For the 2,000 families in Blocks 37-39 of Welfareville, Barangay Addition Hills in Mandaluyong City , getting water meant waking up early, waiting for hours for their turn at a public faucet and then carrying their pails back home. Those who didn't want to queue had to pay P20 to P25 for a drum of water. Since most families consumed four to five drums a day, this left them with barely enough for food and education.
Fortunately for the families at Welfareville, these experiences are now a memory because of Manila Water's Tubig Para Sa Barangay, or Water for the Community, program.
Tubig Para Sa Barangay is Manila Water's flagship program for sustainable development. It installs pipes and distribution system specifically designed for depressed communities to supply them with clean and safe water, 24 hours a day. The program was launched in 1998, a year after Manila Water won the bid to supply water and wastewater services to the east zone of Metro Manila.
The benefits are immediate and significant.
No longer queuing for water, residents have more time to spend with their families or earn a living. They also save on water expenses, now paying an average of P335 a month compared to the P3,000 they used to spend on water by the drum. And because they have to organize themselves into associations to take part in the program, the residents have strengthened their sense of community, giving them more confidence to work collectively for bigger goals.
For Manila Water, connecting these communities to the water system has rapidly expanded expansion of its customer base, decreased illegal connections, and increased its revenues. Add to this the satisfaction of being instrumental in improving the lives of many Filipino families.
“At Manila Water, we do not just lay pipes, we improve lives,” says company president Antonino T. Aquino.
The program is especially beneficial for clustered low-income communities and Manila Water has made it easier for them to apply for water services. As of the end of 2006, the program has covered more than a million people from low-income groups.
Tubig Para Sa Barangay has been expanded to include water and sanitation for service institutions such as public markets, hospitals, schools, orphanages and even city jails—all substantial consumers of water.
“The program is ideal because it shows the perfect alignment of our business goals and social development goals,” says Aquino.
