In line with its aggressive campaign to bring down its water losses, West zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services, Inc. (Maynilad) has started using the Tyfo® Fibrwrap® Pipe Rehabilitation System for its pipe repair operations.
Maynilad is the first water company in the Philippines to use this technology which allows the repair of primary pipelines from the inside, thus minimizing road excavations during leak repair operations.
Water companies usually need to expose the pipe before it can be repaired. This often results in traffic buildup, higher costs and longer repair schedule. With Tyfo® Fibrwrap®, Maynilad contractors need only to expose the beginning and end part of a broken primary line in order to conduct the actual leak repair.
Aside from minimizing the excavation of roads, the Fibrwrap® technology also prevents internal diameter loss of the pipe since it doesn’t add more than ¼-inch thickness to the pipe. It even prevents corrosion-related damages to recur in rehabilitated pipe segments. Equally important, this innovation allows emergency repairs to be completed in a shorter amount of time — approximately 48 to 72 hours.
Ricky Vargas, Maynilad’s President and CEO, shared that the Fibrwrap® technology is just one of Maynilad’s initiatives to bring down non-revenue water (NRW) level in its concession area.
“We want to recover more water for our customers at the soonest possible time so we are constantly on the lookout for technologies and innovations that will allow us to do this,” Vargas added.
For 2011, Maynilad has allocated more than P2.6 billion to reduce its NRW which is currently at
50% — the lowest in its history.
Maynilad is the largest private water concessionaire in the Philippines in terms of customer base. It is a concessionaire 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 (all but portions of San Andres & Sta Ana), Quezon City (west of San Juan River, West Avenue, EDSA, Congressional, Mindanao Avenue, the northern part starting from the Districts of the Holy Spirit & Batasan Hills), Makati (west of South Super Hi-way), Caloocan, Pasay, Paranaque, Las Pinas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas and Malabon all in Metro Manila; Cavite City, and the towns of Bacoor, Imus, Kawit, Noveleta and Rosario, all in Cavite Province.
PHOTO: A Maynilad engineer inspects the new Tyfo® Fibrwrap® Pipe Rehabilitation System.