Manila Water adds 550K new water lines, wasted water drops to 11%

Taguig, Antipolo and some towns of Rizal province are unserved and underserved water service areas no more, according to the Manila Water Company, which said Tuesday that it added 550,000 new service connections and brought down to an all-time low of 11 percent its system losses or wasted water.   The increase in the number of service connections is a seven percent improvement to 8.93 million from 8.38 million water lines. Net income for all of last year also rose by seven percent to P4.27 billion from P3.97 billion in 2010 although billed volume in the East Zone inched up by only 0.4 percent  to 411.6 mcm from 409.8 mcm in 2010.   MWC subsidiary Clark Water posted the biggest gain in billed volume—60 percent—while  Laguna Water saw its billed volume jump 26 percent to 4.9 mcm from 3.9 mcm.   Another subsidiary, Boracay Water had a 19 percent boost in billed volume.   The water concessionaire’s efforts to reduce non-revenue volume led to the recovery of more than 650 million liters of water per day—equivalent to the volume of a medium sized dam, the MWSS said. — ELR, GMA News