Manila Water Company, Inc.

2015

Top CSR Advocates in Asia

Manila Water Company, Inc.

Top CSR Advocates in Asia

2015

About Manila Water

“Manila Water ensures that customers in the areas it serves – especially the poor communities -are given the best possible service by providing 24/7 clean and safe drinking water to 6.3 million people at affordable rates. ”

To be socially relevant, Manila Water Company, Inc. has integrated sustainability in the company’s day-to-day activities. Since the start of its operations, Manila Water’s business goals and programmes have been fully aligned with the commitment to serve the community so that people and businesses are empowered and the integrity of the physical environment that provides the lifeblood of the company’s operations – water – is preserved. Manila Water continues to intensify its sustainability efforts in five focal areas: developing employees, helping build communities, protecting the environment, safeguarding health and safety, and contributing to local and national economies.

To strengthen its CSR advocacies, Manila Water continues to undertake major sustainability initiatives that include the Tubig Para sa Barangay (Water for the Community) programme, Lingap programme (water provision for public service institutions), the Manila Water University (employee development programme), Kabuhayan Para sa Barangay (Livelihood for the Community) programme and the Suki Vendor (Preferred Vendor) Programme, and its environmental programmes focused on wastewater, watersheds, environmental partnerships and climate change.

Tubig Para Sa Barangay (TPSB) is the flagship programme of Manila Water, providing sustainable water services to the urban poor. It created a win-win solution for the company and its customers by overcoming legal, technical and economic constraints previously considered insurmountable. As a way of communicating and addressing customer needs, public consultations were held with local community partners (fondly termed as kasangga) acting as communicators and influencers in behalf of Manila Water. In cases where pipelines cannot be laid due to narrow road networks, group metering or bulk meter schemes were provided to low-income communities, where kasanggas play a key role in establishing site-specific mechanisms for distributing water and billing. By providing access to water communities previously denied such service, Manila Water has empowered the poor at the bottom of the pyramid and manifested its commitment to inclusive growth.

Complementing the TPSB Programme is the Lingap Programme which improved water access in public service institutions frequently patronised by the urban poor, such as schools, hospitals, public markets, city jails and orphanages. This ensured that people from the urban poor would still have access to safe drinking water and promote proper sanitation even outside their homes. As of the end of 2014, 355 public service institutions have benefited from this programme.

Kabuhayan Para Sa Barangay (KPSB) aims to provide and strengthen livelihood capacities of communities by providing non-interest loans to community-based cooperatives and as much as possible include them in Manila Water’s supply chain. Many of these communities were also beneficiaries of the Tubig Para Sa Barangay programme.

An inclusive growth practice that led to multiple benefits for the company is the ‘Suki Vendor’ concept for water network projects. Manila Water has a policy to award a significant share of its projects to small and medium enterprises and nurture long-term partnerships with small pipe laying contractors, some of whom have grown across the years and eventually became joint venture partners as Manila Water expanded its geographic scope.

The Manila Water University (MWU), launched in 2014, aims to respond to the needs of a continuously growing organization where talents are given the opportunity to take charge of their individual career development, communicate career aspirations, seek support through coaching, and eventually drive career growth within the company. Its two main tracks focus on leadership development and technical excellence.