Maynilad Water Services Inc. will push back by another week its pipe realignment activity to give its 2.9 million customers more time to prepare for the estimated four-day water service interruption.
In a statement, Maynilad said that it moved the schedule of service interruptions from October 25, 2021 (Monday) to October 28, 2021 (Thursday) to October 29, 2021 (Friday) to November 1, 2021 (Monday).
The decision to delay its realignment work followed after a “deluge of requests from customers to defer the activity so that they have more time to prepare."
“We coordinated with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) regarding this request, and it has been agreed that the project implementation be pushed back slightly,” Maynilad said.
To recall, it was on Monday when Maynilad first announced that it will conduct a massive pipe realignment activity in Manila to give way to a DPWH flood control project.
Maynilad Water Supply Operations Head Engr. Ronald Padua said this flood control project will cause water service interruptions ranging from 25 to 85 hours in parts of Las Piñas, Makati, Manila, Parañaque, Pasay, Bacoor, Cavite City, Imus, and the municipalities of Kawit, Noveleta, Rosario in Cavite province.
The DPWH project, designed to address the perennial flooding in Manila, involves the installation of a drainage line along Cristobal St. in Sampaloc, Manila.
And since Maynilad has an existing water pipeline along Sobriedad corner Cristobal Street that is directly in the way of the drainage line to be laid by DPWH, Maynilad has to cut off a part of its existing pipeline and replace it with a cross-under pipe.
Padua said that the total number of people to be affected by the water interruption stood at 2.9 million or 421,000 water service connections (WSCs), which is 32 percent of the 1.5 million WSC serviced by Maynilad.
Of this number, 60,000 WSCs or 420,000 people in Sampaloc, Manila will have no water for three consecutive days.
Maynilad said its new water service interruption schedule “coincides with the break for Undas when people typically go to the provinces and fewer customers are expected to be home, thus mitigating the impact of the service interruptions on consumers”.
To mitigate the impact of the pipe realignment activity, Maynilad is installing 14 stationary water tanks and deploying 60 mobile water tankers to serve areas that will experience three straight days of interrupted supply. It will also tap the assistance of local government units and local fire bureaus to expand the available fleet of water tankers that can help deliver water to affected communities.
“Given the deferment, Maynilad will also use the extra time to further increase our available complement of mobile water tankers and stationary water tanks, with the assistance of local government units and the local fire bureaus,” Maynilad said.
While the service interruption due to this pipe realignment is in place, Maynilad said it will also take the opportunity to conduct other smaller, parallel activities—including leak repairs in other areas and maintenance works in several pumping stations—which would otherwise require the implementation of separate service disruptions.
