West Zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services, Inc. (Maynilad) recently marked its 5th anniversary as a re-privatized company. It was on January 24, 2007 when ownership and management of Maynilad was formally transferred to Metro Pacific Investments Corporation and DMCI Holdings, Inc., two of the biggest conglomerates in the country today.
In its first five years of operation, Maynilad was able to prepay US$240 million worth of external loans, engineer its early exit from court-administrated rehabilitation, and implement a P30 billion capital expenditure program. All these allowed the water company to significantly improve water services in the West Zone in a short amount of time.
From 32% in 2006, Maynilad customers who now have 24-hour water supply have increased to 84% by the end of 2011. Meanwhile, those who receive their water supply at the acceptable pressure of 7 psi have more than doubled from 45% to 96% during the same period.
Within five years, Maynilad also increased its customer base from only 6.1 million at the end of 2006 to over 7.9 million by December 2011. Included among these new customers are households and establishments in Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa and Cavite. Prior to Maynilad’s entry into these areas, residents were dependent on unsafe and expensive water deliveries from private deep well operators.
“When the new owners took over, Maynilad was operating in an environment of uncertainty. And yet, we were able to significantly improve our services. Much of the credit goes to our employees who performed well because and despite the financial, regulatory and environmental challenges that confronted our company,” Maynilad president and CEO Victorico P. Vargas said.
Maynilad is a concessionaire of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System 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 Highway), Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, 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 caption:
ARAW NG BAGONG MAYNILAD. Maynilad employees and stakeholders marked the company’s fifth anniversary in a whole day celebration at the SM Mall of Asia Activity Center. During the same event, Maynilad recognized its former presidents, top employees and key stakeholders for their contributions to the company. Inset Photo: Parañaque mayor Florencio Bernabe Jr. (second from left) as he accepts a special award from Maynilad officials (from left) President and CEO Victorico Vargas, Chairman Manuel Pangilinan, COO Herbert Consunji, and CFO Randolph Estrellado.
