(Eagle News) — Manila Water announced on Tuesday, March 19, that its customers will “now have longer hours of water availability daily as compared to last week.”
The water concessionaire made the announcement a day after its president and CEO, Ferdinand dela Cruz attended a House panel hearing on the water crisis.
During the hearing, he apologized to Manila Water’s 1.6 million customers in Metro Manila and Rizal for the severe water interruptions that had crippled businesses and homes for more than a week.
In a statement on Tuesday, Manila Water explained that the longer water service hours was because of the implementation of its “rotational water supply scheme” which began on Thursday, March 14.
Citing what it said was its latest data, Manila Water said that over 93 percent of Metro Manila’s East Zone now “regularly receives water supply.”
“Most of Manila Water’s customers are now receiving better availability service such as in barangays San Isidro, San Jose, San Luis and San Roque in Antipolo who are now getting an additional seven hours of water supply daily. The same is true for barangays Bambang and Wawa in Taguig,” it said in a statement.
It said that it also continues to deploy water tanks to barangays which receive no water.
“The rotational service scheme adopted is a temporary measure that aims to balance water supply distribution,” Manila Water said.
-“Calibrations” in network distribution-
It said that it had been making “calibrations” in its network distribution “that has resulted in the continuous improvement of water restoration.”
“We are greatly encouraged by the results of our actions, and we will continue to exert all effort to bring water service availability back to normal levels at the earliest possible time,” it added.
On Monday, during a House panel hearing on the water crisis, Manila Water president Ferdinand dela Cruz apologized to the public for his company’s failure to provide water to its millions of customers.
Dela Cruz also said he was prepared to resign ” but that his focus right now was the restoration of the water service to its customers.
“I am prepared to resign for failing the customers. But my focus now right now is to restore the service even if it’s in a slow process,” he said during the hearing.
“I am holding myself fully accountable for the sudden drop in our service levels to your constituents whom we have consistently served over the past 21 years with 24/7 water availability and sufficient water pressure. March 6, 2019 is a date I will not forget as President of Manila Water,” he said in his opening speech during the House panel hearing.