Primewater Infrastructure Corporation, the water utility firm of the Villar Group, is boosting the capacity of water districts while helping them improve the quality of their services by injecting much-needed capital and technical know-how.
With the mandate to provide safe and potable water to all consumers, water districts in the Philippines have moved to develop and improve water provision in their respective franchise areas.
Over time, there had been notable successes, showing increased coverage and service connections, with many projects infused to improve water services.
Prime Water said it is committed to ensuring the delivery of clean, potable and reliable water supply and services to the public.
Since water districts, by law, cannot be sold to private corporations, the Primewater joint venture agreement (JVA) was conceptualized and as such, many water districts ventured into this JVA to tap into the benefits of the public-private partnership program and to harness private capital and expertise in improving their services.
Since Primewater’s very first partnership with Lingayen Water District in 2013, it has seen increasing revenue and service connections attributable to, among others, the improvement of services, expansion of its coverage area, and the reduction of its Non-Revenue Water (NRW) – all through the combined and coordinated efforts of the joint venture partners.
At present, Primewater has successfully partnered with various Water Districts across the country.
From the conception of Primewater Joint Venture last 2013, notable improvements have been seen from Pre-JV Operations.
For example, Non-Revenue-Water (NRW) or losses incurred due to leaks have seen a remarkable 8.3% drop, from an average of 39.9 percent to 31.6percent by end of April 2021.
New JV Branches such as Mapandan, Mayantoc, and Gerona in North Luzon have already recorded more than 13 percent of NRW reduction despite operating only for over a year since 2019.
On the other hand, older branches which started in 2013-2014, such as Lingayen and Lemery, reduced more than 19 percent of their NRW, while branches in the VisMin region, specifically Ozamis, Maasin, and Pinamungajan, have shown a 26 percent, 30 percent, and 16 percent reduction, respectively.
Improvements can also be seen in increased water service connections. From an initial base of 1.28 million customers before the JV partnership, active service connections have expanded to close to 1.6 million concessionaires, with an additional 305,000 or 19 percent more households with access to safe and potable drinking water in the country.
According to Primewater President Maribeth Tolentino, many factors affect the technical, financial, and operational aspects of the water utility business.
“When you enter into a joint venture, you do not start from scratch – the district would already have existing facilities at the time. This leads to some people developing the misconception that this represents an advantageous situation, but the truth is that though there may be existing facilities, these come with their own set of issues, challenges, and financial obligations, all of which will need to be addressed before we can even look to the future,” she noted.
“We at Primewater always approach our partnerships as a critical challenge both technically and financially, but always an opportunity to demonstrate to our partner districts what committed private capital and expertise can do," Tolentino said.
Mario Villasan, Cabanatuan City Water District general manager, touted the JV as an avenue toward improving the delivery of basic services.
“I have to admit that one function I do not miss now that we are in a JVA are some of the bureaucracies of being a GOCC (government-owned or controlled corporation), say in the procurement of goods and services, which took up a lot of time and effort,” he said.
Villasa added that, “Instead, time is better spent listening to and communicating with our customers to improve our services and planning for their future needs. The JV enabled the water district to focus on its core competencies such as customer service and strategic planning while our partner handled the financial and infrastructure side of the business."