Water Privatization in Metro Manila

Water privatization in Metro Manila began when the then President of the Philippines, Fidel Ramos, instructed the government in 1994 to solve what he called the water crisis in Manila by engaging with the private sector. In 1997 two concession contracts for the Eastern and Western halves of Metro Manila were awarded after an open competition. These concessions represent the largest population served by private operators in the developing world. Both winning companies, Maynilad in West Manila and especially Manila Water in East Manila, submitted bids with very low tariffs. These tariffs proved to be too low to finance the investments needed to improve performance, especially after the East Asian financial crisis and the devaluation of the Filipino Peso. Maynilad expanded access, but was unable to reduce water losses. It ultimately stopped paying concession fees to the government and went bankrupt in 2003. It was temporarily taken over by the government and sold to new investors in 2007. Performance has improved since then. Manila Water also struggled initially, but was able to increase its contractual rate of return through the decision of an arbitration panel in 1998. Since then, it has improved performance substantially, which is partly due to a management strategy that delegated decision-making power to employees at the local level.

Neither of the two companies was able to achieve its targets in terms of increased access as scheduled in their contracts. Improvements in access and service quality were slow during the first years, especially in West Manila. Concerning sanitation, progress has been far below the contractual targets. The concession contracts foresaw an increase of access to sewerage from less than 10 percent to 66 percent in West Manila and 55 percent in East Manila until 2021. As of 2010, more than halfway through the concession period, access had barely increased and stood at 16 percent in West Manila and 12 percent in East Manila. Concerning water supply, however, significant improvements were achieved. In West Manila, Maynilad increased the share of the population with access to piped water from 67 percent in 1997 to 86 percent in 2006, increased the share of customers that enjoy 24-hour water supply from 32 percent in 2007 to 71 percent in early 2011, and reduced non-revenue water to 47 percent in 2011, after it had increased from 64 percent in 1997 to 69 percent in 2002. In East Manila, Manila Water showed more impressive results. It more than doubled the population served from 3 million in 1997 to 6.1 million in 2009, it increased the share of customers with continuous water supply from 26 percent to more than 98 percent, and reduced non-revenue water from 63 percent to 16 percent.

Tariffs in both halves of the metropolitan area were first reduced, but then increased substantially. After adjustment for inflation, in 2008 average tariffs in West Manila were 89 percent higher than the pre-privatization tariff and 59 percent higher in East Manila.

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