Manila Water - Social Responsibility

Social Responsibility

As soon as it took over its concession area, Manila Water developed a program to provide potable water at affordable rates to urban poor communities. Called "Tubig Para Sa Barangay" (Water for the Community, or sometimes, Water for the Poor), the program now benefits 1.6 million residents. Over the years, it also developed complementing programs for water supply and sanitation in public schools, public markets, city jails, hospitals, and orphanages. It also has an educational program called "Lakbayan" or "Water Trail" to brief stakeholders on the water supply chain.

In 2004, Manila Water created a Sustainable Development Cluster, an internal committee to oversee the company's sustainable development agenda. In 2005, it became the first Philippine company to publish a Sustainability Report following Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. Other subsidiaries of Ayala Corporation would soon follow its example to make public their commitments to measure, report, and improve performance on sustainability indicators on economic, environment, and labor practices.