2007 Sustainability Report - Manila Water Company

Message
from the Chairman
and President
On our tenth year, we have made significant strides in pursuing our
social, economic and environmental objectives. As we provided
water to more needy customers, we also jumpstarted a wastewater
master plan to effect better environmental conditions in Metro Manila. We
also made sure that our recently-approved Service Improvement Plan as a
result of the just-concluded rate rebasing exercise gives enough focus on
environmental issues.
At the forefront of these environmental issues are the sustainability of water
supply and preservation of natural resources, both of which are essential
in ensuring continued access to and availability of water.
Building Communities
In the past year, a record number of households from low income communities
enjoyed their own water connection – many of them for the first time –
through our Tubig Para sa Barangay (Water for the Poor) Program. In line
with our commitment to improve the quality of life of our less-privileged
customers in our service area, we have spent PhP 1.7 billion for this
initiative or 56% of our total service improvement projects.
We have also secured a USD 2.8 million grant from the Global
Partnership for Output-Based Aid (GPOBA), which facilitated
the delivery of service to more households in poor communities.
The GPOBA is a multi-donor trust fund administered by the
World Bank, in which Manila Water was the first Philippine
private institution to qualify for such funding. Our investor
International Finance Corporation provided this initial
GPOBA funding. In turn, we have complemented GPOBA
by offering to pre-fund plumbing, faucet installation and
construction of toilet facilities to poor communities. Through
this partnership, we hope to ensure development of our
economically-marginalized customers.
MANILA WATER COMPANY, INC.
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