Month: April 2021

West Zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services, Inc. (Maynilad) is ramping up initiatives to protect vital watersheds, which replenish the dams that serve the water needs of about 15 million people in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. 

These enhanced initiatives—to be done at the Ipo, La Mesa and Umiray watersheds—include the reforestation of denuded forest lands, close assessment of planting sites, intensified monitoring of major Ipo River tributaries to determine sources of high turbidity, and renewed engagement of Dumagat forest rangers to monitor, guard, and report on the status of the Ipo watershed, among others. These will be done in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), local government of Quezon City, and the Municipalities of General Nakar, Norzagaray, San Jose del Monte, and Rodriguez. 

Significant among the enhanced programs is the development of the Ipo Watershed Plan—a comprehensive program that the MWSS and the water concessionaires will undertake over the next 25 years for the use, protection, and management of the Ipo Watershed. 

Given the effects of climate change and increased urbanization among other emerging challenges, Maynilad President and CEO Ramoncito S. Fernandez noted that existing watershed preservation programs have to be updated to respond to these new realities. 

“There is a need for stricter protection of our watersheds so that the raw water we get from our dams will be preserved, and our water production will not be affected either by supply shortage or by unprecedented increases in raw water turbidity,” Fernandez said at the sidelines of the “Earth Day Talk: From Source to Communities” Webinar conducted today, April 22, by Maynilad’s water education arm, the Maynilad Water Academy. 

The webinar, held to mark this year’s “Earth Day” celebration, featured as speakers DENR’s Watershed Ecosystem Management Section Chief Alicia Castillo, MWSS’s Watershed Management Division Manager Roman Corpuz, and Maynilad’s Water Supply Operations Division Head Ronald Padua. 

West Zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services, Inc. (Maynilad) provided hydration support for COVID-19 medical frontliners amid the re-implementation of the enhanced community quarantine in the National Capital Region. The water company donated some 14,000 pieces of bottled water and meals to 42 private and public hospitals in Metro Manila, including Asian Hospital and Medical Center, Makati Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Manila Doctors Hospital, De Los Santos Medical Center, Dr. Jesus C. Delgado Memorial Hospital, Lourdes Hospital, and Sacred Heart Hospital of Malolos. The photo shows Maynilad personnel turning over donations of bottled water for the frontliners of Marikina Valley Medical Center during the “#SalamatMgaMVPs” feeding program.

Bottled water donations were also given to the frontliners of Caloocan South Medical Center, Caloocan North Medical Center, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital, Las Piñas General Hospital (District Hospital), Perpetual Help, Pope John Paul II Hospital, Las Piñas Doctor’s Hospital , Las Piñas Medical Center, Ospital Ng Makati, Ospital Ng Malabon, Philippine General Hospital, Metropolitan Medical Center, Sta. Ana Hospital, San Lazaro Hospital, Tondo Medical Center, Ospital Ng Muntinlupa, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, Alabang Medical Center, Medical Center of Muntinlupa, Navotas City Hospital, Ospital Ng Parañaque, Parañaque Doctor’s Hospital, San Dionisio Health Center, Pasay General Hospital, Air Force General Hospital, Adventist Medical Hospital, San Juan De Dios Hospital, QC General Hospital, Novaliches District Hospital, Rosario Maclang Bautista Gen. Hospital, Valenzuela Medical Center, Fatima University Medical Center, and Gat. Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center. 

Maynilad has been actively providing assistance to the government’s COVID-19 initiatives through donations of alcohol and disinfection materials, as well as the provision of free water supply for government quarantine and testing facilities across the West Concession area. Last year, Maynilad also built a P15-million COVID-19 testing and laboratory center inside the Delos Santos Medical Center (DLSMC) compound in Quezon City to help boost the country’s testing capacity, in line with national efforts to curb the pandemic.