For over a year, good access to water was just a dream for Bernardo Banal and families living along the Bacolod Circumferential Road in Hervias III, Villamonte in Bacolod City.
Bernardo and wife Maria Daya said the onset of the pandemic in 2020 made their circumstance even worse as access to water became even more difficult. They could hardly get a pail of water at a time when everyone was scared about getting infected by the coronavirus (COVID) and utility companies were also trying to figure out how to continue their operation and the service they extend to communities given the very strict health protocols.
Bernardo thought low water pressure was the reason why no water reached their homes for years. Desperate, he bought a booster pump but to no avail. Still, no water came out of their faucets.
“We had to stay awake and wait for water to come out of our faucets. If we’re lucky, we would be able to save a pail or two, before the water supply goes back to zero around 8 o’clock in the morning. It was very difficult for us having not enough water to no water at all the whole day,” recalled Maria Daya.
But the couple were surprised to find out that the real cause of the problem was not low water pressure but rather, pipes that were already old and worn out.
“We saw that the pipes had huge holes that caused water to leak,” shared Maria Daya.
“For two years, we could not get much needed water and we did not have any idea what was the cause of the problem until a team from PrimeWater came and inspected the water pipes here. They showed us what was causing the pipes to leak. They immediately repaired and replaced the worn out pipes,” said Bernardo who showed how strong and consistent water pressure is now after the problem has been acted upon.
Jose Rommel Dedase lives a few houses away from the Banals. He also expressed gratitude to the utility firm’s Leak Detection Team for addressing the problem. He eagerly opened his faucet to prove that water is no longer a problem in his household and the water pressure is even strong.
“They solved the problem. As you can see we already have water. Water pressure in our area now is very strong. It is okay now because they have identified the problem and have acted on it. We are very thankful that they have finally addressed our concern,” said Dedase.
Engr. John Arlan Canatoy, maintenance head, said before the joint venture agreement (JVA) between PrimeWater and the Bacolod City Water District (BACIWA), they would just wait for calls from consumers before they deployed teams to look into concerns brought to their attention. But one of the best practices now under the new management is the creation and deployment of leak detection teams to service areas.
“Leak detection teams visit service areas daily to walk the lines, find leaks and make a report so that we can take action immediately. All of our lines are inspected by our crew regularly to ensure that if there are problems, we can troubleshoot right away. This is a proactive measure,” he explained.
As of February, the Bacolod City Water District and PrimeWater Bacolod has detected and repaired 21,682 leaks, since the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) took effect on November 13, 2020. The Leak Detection Team has surveyed more than 12,000 kilometers of pipeline. According to a report from PW’s Maintenance Department, due to the repairs of leaking pipes, more or less 10 million liters of water are saved daily.
Engr. Allan Paul Genovata, technical head, said improvements were noted in their efforts to reduce non-revenue water (NRW).
Genovata said the volume of water recovered has helped cater to new service connections. “This helped improve water pressure in areas that used to experience low water pressure like Barangay Banago. Residents there used to have water from zero to 4 hours only. After leaking pipes were repaired, they started to enjoy water for 11 to 16 hours a day,” he added.
“NRW is mostly leakage. It is actually almost 80 percent leakage. Most water companies are losing more than 30 percent of their supply. That is why it is important to reduce this. As soon as the pipes age and some of your water meters are already old, NRW will increase. Our goal is really to bring NRW down to 20 percent or lower than that,” explained Engr. Ernie Delco, NRW head.
In Bacolod, from 38 percent NRW in 2020, they were able to bring it down to 29 percent due to massive leak detection and repairs, added Delco.
This among other best practices of the firm enabled it to be number one in terms of bringing down NRW significantly among utility firms with JVA with PW nationwide.
Delco emphasized that it takes a community to successfully bring down significantly NRW if not, totally put an end to leaking pipes. While utility firms are obligated to regularly monitor and inspect pipelines and make prompt actions to problems, consumers and other stakeholders must also help in solving the problem. Simply put, fewer leaking pipes equals less water wastage. Therefore, efficiency is increased, resulting in more water for consumers.*
