West Zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services, Inc. (Maynilad) is allotting ₱558 million this year for its meter management program, which aims to reduce water loss and billing errors caused by old, inaccurate water meters.
About ₱428 million of this amount will go to the replacement of some 135,000 old water meters of residential accounts across the West concession area. Meanwhile, ₱40 million has been earmarked for the upgrade of some mechanical meters to electromagnetic meters, which allows for automatic meter reading.
The remaining ₱90 million will be used for the assessment and maintenance of water meters in primary distribution lines, as well as the installation of new meters for recently connected accounts.
Maynilad’s meter replacement program is intended to improve billing accuracy and reduce meter malfunctions which contribute to the commercial losses of Maynilad. Commercial losses refer to the volume of water lost due to theft and inaccuracies in metering and data handling. Maynilad estimates that commercial losses account for 24% of its Non-Revenue Water (water losses).
Since 2012 when the program was launched, the company has started replacing small meters manufactured from year 2005 and below. The project seeks to replace an average of 150,000 meters every year. As of March 2016, Maynilad recovered 28 million liters per day through its meter replacement program.
“Water meters only have an optimum life span of about seven years. Given this, the timely replacement of water meters is essential so our customers can be assured that Maynilad records and bills their consumption accurately,” said President and CEO Ramoncito S. Fernandez.
Maynilad is the largest private water concessionaire in the Philippines in terms of customer base. It is the agent and contractor of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) for the West Zone of the Greater Manila Area, which is composed of the cities of Manila (certain portions), Quezon City (certain portions), Makati (west of South Super Highway), Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas and Malabon all in Metro Manila; the cities of Cavite, Bacoor and Imus, and the towns of Kawit, Noveleta and Rosario, all in Cavite Province.