Maynilad must turn rosy pictures into tap water

TWO recent reports by May-nilad — an international award for wastewater recovery and a fresh P30 billion investment pledge — are clearly meant to project an image of a concessionaire boldly “future proofing” water supply in the West Zone of Metro Manila. They are crafted as feel good stories of innovation, environmental responsibility and financial muscle.

Maynilad wants our eyes to linger on what it touts as the crown jewel of this package: the P10.5 billion Caloocan Malabon Navotas (Maypajo) facility that, on paper, will treat up to 205 million liters of dirty water per day, supposedly benefiting at least 1.2 million customers. The message is simple: Trust us, we are investing, we are modern, we are winning awards. (Maynilad is ultimately — through corporate layers — controlled by the Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. owned by the Indonesian magnate Anthoni Salim. The Japanese Marubeni Corp. owns a minority 21.5 percent).

This glossy narrative hides the daily ordeal of water interruptions, low water pressure and prolonged outages which have become not the rare exception but the dreary norm. Behind the “praise releases” are households forced to live on erratic schedules, scrambling each night for a resource that should be basic and predictable.

These are not just numbers on a balance sheet that analysts parse during investor briefings. They translate into extra expenses, lost time and daily hardship: parents waking up at odd hours to store water, students losing sleep, informal workers losing income as they queue for deliveries. The gap between praise releases and reality is gnawing, and the publicity — no matter how slick — is at best an empty word and, at worst, a distraction from persistent failure.

What do the numbers really mean — and what do they try to hide?

Maynilad reports a year on year reduction in nonrevenue water (NRW) from 39 percent to 32.8 percent, supposedly translating into roughly 231 million liters recovered daily. It also brags about reclaiming 400 million liters each day for potable reuse and declares a 9.5-percent revenue hike, or P27.7 billion, for the third quarter of 2025 alone. On paper, this is the language of success: more water recovered, more water reused, more money earned.

If tapped correctly, these figures could correspond to better service, supply stability and environmental sustainability. A genuine reduction in NRW means fewer leaks and pilferage, more efficient operations and theoretically more water reaching paying customers. Properly managed reclaimed water can ease pressure on raw water sources and help buffer the system against drought.

But the critical question for consumers is not what looks impressive in a PowerPoint slide. It is what is happening on the ground: How much water is actually recovered and reclaimed to improve household supply in concrete terms of pressure, reliability and predictability? How many additional hours of normal pressure does this supposed recovery translate to? How many barangay have moved from intermittent to steady service?

Skin-deep

This is where the reality of Maynilad’s reporting is exposed as skin deep.

The data dished out by the company is not independently verified and is cloaked in a troubling lack of transparency. Key questions remain hanging: How much reclaimed water is actually flowing to households as opposed to industrial and commercial users? How much of the proclaimed NRW reduction is durable, and how much might be statistical maneuvering or temporary gains? What environmental safeguards are in place, and how often are they audited by entities other than those handpicked by the company?

Without scrutiny, consumers are left in the dark over whether these praise releases are easing their suffering or merely polishing Maynilad’s corporate brand. Numbers, when selectively presented and shielded from independent evaluation, can quickly become a smokescreen rather than a window.

While Maynilad paints a picture of substantial achievement in NRW reduction and reclaimed water production, it cannot hide the human cost of interruptions that have become the norm in its concession area. Schedules of “service interruptions” are now routine posts on social media and barangay chat groups, as if people must permanently organize their lives around water’s unpredictable arrival.

Interruptions mainly happen overnight, typically from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and last from five to 12 hours — effectively half a day for those who keep early morning schedules. Published interruption schedules show that these disruptions are far too common and widespread to be dismissed as minor or temporary.

Customers queue for water deliveries, spend hours of their sleeping time filling drums and containers, pay more for commercial laundry or dig into already shallow pockets for bottled water. These are not occasional inconveniences; they are recurring failures in planning, communication and contingency provision. When outages routinely occur overnight, they interfere with basic household activities, from bathing children to preparing food, and they exacerbate inequities — the poorest households are the least able to absorb the added costs and logistical burdens.

Absence

Yet Maynilad simultaneously trumpets revenue growth, boasting of “solid performance” that, when measured against the lived experience of its customers, simply means this: Poor service can still be highly profitable. There appears to be an absence of competence, or at least of urgency, in a water service provider that claims excellence while refusing to seriously address the most basic metric that matters to consumers: water flowing from the tap when needed.

The question then is: What must Maynilad actually do to serve consumers better, beyond the ritual issuance of upbeat press statements and project announcements?

Where it pours its money matters. But more than that, governance, transparency and operational systems that translate funds into actual improvements at the household level matter, too. Investment, without clear accountability mechanisms and measurable service outcomes, is just another line in a corporate brochure.

To shake Maynilad back into its senses, here are a few unsolicited but necessary pieces of advice.

First, publish detailed public timetables that show not just projects, but results. Key investments — such as the Maypajo facility, critical pipeline upgrades and NRW programs — must be tied to clear, time bound targets for solving water pressure issues and stabilizing supply in specific districts. Key performance gauges — like reduction in outage hours per 1,000 customers, percentage of households getting maximum pressure 24/7 and the number of barangay moving out of “rotational interruption” status — must be regularly reported and compared with previously announced milestones. Absent this, praise releases about new investments and awards are meaningless to a household staring at a dry tap.

Second, seek independent audits of NRW figures and reclaimed water allotment. Investors, shareholders and the public alike must know how much reclaimed water is really being returned to households, what proportion goes to industrial or commercial use and what safeguards are in place to ensure safety and long term sustainability. Most importantly, consumers deserve to know when they will actually feel the benefits in their faucets, not just read about them in corporate announcements.

Management

Third, put in place a sensible and humane disruption management system that protects consumers rather than merely informing them. Planned works must be matched with logical schedules that minimize disruption to working families and students, robust advance notices through multiple channels, practical water delivery contingencies (pre-positioned mobile tanks, community water stations and coordination with local governments) and clear, transparent compensation systems for extended or sudden outages. When outages cross reasonable thresholds, bill adjustments or rebates should be automatic, not favors grudgingly granted after public uproar.

Fourth, disclose a credible strategy to diversify sources of supply. Reliance on primary sources like Angat Dam is no longer feasible as demand grows and climate risks intensify. Maynilad must make public its time bound plans to diversify water sources through interconnections with neighboring systems, bulk water supplies, smaller local surface or groundwater projects and, where feasible, desalination. Targets and funding milestones must be open to the public so regulators, local governments and consumers can track progress, ask questions and demand corrections when the company falls short.

Equally crucial is tying up these key plans, milestones and monitoring efforts with stronger consumer grievance systems and regulatory oversight. These should be required conditions for approving major programs and rate adjustments. Transparency that allows civil society, community organizations and ordinary consumers to hold providers accountable must be actively demanded and institutionalized by the regulator, not treated as an afterthought.

An award winning wastewater facility that does not translate into better pressure and fewer outages in households is, at best, a partial success and, at worst, an expensive diversion of attention.

Consumers deserve nothing but the bottom line, which is simple: reliable, predictable, safe water supply at the tap. Maynilad must stop masking its failures with corporate bravado. To deserve its concession, it must submit to independent audits, deliver clear and honest messages, achieve targets with measurable timelines and protect consumers at all costs — even at the price of confessing to past incompetence and changing course.

Maynilad is both technically and financially capable, but its muscles remain idle when it comes to addressing the lived experience of its customers. The challenge now is straightforward: Ensure that reclaimed water, reduced NRW and new supply sources are not just figures in a report, but actually flow into households as reliable, predictable and safe water in their taps.

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The post Maynilad must turn rosy pictures into tap water first appeared on Rigoberto Tiglao.

Maynilad must turn rosy pictures into tap water
Source: Breaking News PH