In 1986-92, The government of Corazon Aquino launched a major privatization programme that sold 122 companies for $2 billion. When Fidel Ramos followed, he extended the privatization program to infrastructure, causing an electricity crisis through rapid private investment in power plants in 1992-1994. Based on this perceived success, Ramos asked his Secretary for Public Works and Transport Gregorio Vigilar to adopt the same approach to solving Manila`s water problems. [13]:3-5 Starting in 2012, Manila Water operates 36 mostly small wastewater treatment plants, with a total capacity of 0.135 million cubic metres per day. These small “package” processing facilities have been designed to reduce costs. Manila Water presents it as an “innovative and unconventional solution.” According to Manila Water, the plant mud is sent to a composting plant in central Luzon, from where it is applied ashore in a laharbe-laden area in Tarlac province. Manila Water has a license to pack biosolids from its treatment plants as a ground conditioner. [43] It plans to invest US$1 billion in sanitation between 2011 and 2018 to bring remediation to the contractual goal. [40] Starting in 2012, three large wastewater treatment plants were constructed or proposed to increase the total wastewater treatment capacity in their watersheds to 0.5 million cubic metres per day.
[7] Many poor people in Manila do not have access to water supplies because the country in which they live is illegally occupied and therefore private services are not allowed to connect them to the grid. However, innovative solutions have been found to address this problem. The concession agreement between two equal parties, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and Manila Water, is the structure and framework on which a private partner has been able to clean up and develop water and sanitation services in metro Manila`s east end. Concession contracts required private companies to obtain a continuous water supply at a pressure level of 16 pounds per square inch (1.1 bar), enough to bring water up to 11 metres above the ground without additional pumps. They also demanded compliance with drinking water and wastewater standards until the year 2000. [18] These objectives have not been met, but there have been significant improvements. For example, in East Manila, between 1997 and the end of 2009, the share of customers with a continuous water supply increased from 26% to over 98%. [40] In West Manila, it increased from 46 per cent in 2007 to 82 per cent in September 2011. [31] According to a University of the Philippines survey, the proportion of people who considered Manila Water`s performance to be “very good” increased from 28 per cent to 100 per cent. [40] [47] A 2000 MWSS survey showed that in both halves of the concession, 33 per cent of residents had seen an improvement in service, while 12 per cent said service had deteriorated, with 55 per cent saying they had remained unchanged since privatization. [21] In West Manila, Maynilad launched the first attempts to connect the slum poor by building distribution networks by a small local company called IWADCO (Inpart Waterworks and Development Company) with its own resources and the purchase of water in large quantities from distribution companies. Local banks initially refused to lend to the company, even though it already had 25,000 paying customers.
[49] An NGO called Streams of Knowledge, linked to the Philippine Center for Water and Sanitation and supported by UNDP, helped establish the agreement with the local government and Maynilad, which provides water at a reduced mass price. Users pay their water bills to water coordinators in the municipalities concerned, who in turn pay streams, who in turn pay a salary to the coordinator, pay the water bill in bulk and pay some of the money to the Community. [50] [51] Maynilad built the distribution network only to supply points at the entrance to the narrow alleys, from where the inhabitants distributed it among themselves with rubber pipes.
