Maynilad water losses cut to less than 35% last year

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January 27, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — West Zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services Inc. said it was able to bring down its water losses to below 35 percent last year, boosting water supply to its customers.

Maynilad said its full-year non-revenue water (NRW) level in 2025 fell to 34.9 percent, five percentage points lower than the 2024 level. NRW refers to loss and unbilled water.

In December 2025 alone, Maynilad said its NRW plunged to 30.7 percent from 38.4 percent in the same month of 2024.

The 7.7-percentage point reduction translated to 256 million liters per day (MLD) of recovered water that is enough to meet the daily needs of more than 1.6 million people, Maynilad said.

“This progress reflects the collective effort of our teams and the effectiveness of our multipronged approach to NRW reduction,” said Maynilad chief operating officer Christopher Lichauco.

“Every liter of water recovered improves system efficiency by reducing the need to overproduce treated water, allowing us to optimize treatment, pumping and distribution using existing assets, while strengthening our ability to provide reliable service while stewarding resources responsibly,” he added.

Maynilad said it scaled up its operational interventions last year to accelerate detection, leak repair, meter replacement and pipeline rehabilitation to address its NRW level.

The company added that it fixed over 70,000 small leaks, a 22 percent increase year-on-year, alongside 206 large pipe leaks in primary distribution systems. It also replaced 82 kilometers of old pipelines in areas considered to have high water losses.

The water utility firm also leveraged technologies like artificial intelligence to detect and address water leaks faster.

“These innovations helped optimize our field activities and allowed us to detect and resolve leaks faster – especially in areas where traditional methods are less effective,” said Central NRW head Ryan Jamora.

Maynilad targets to achieve an NRW level of 25 percent by 2027 in line with its business plan for the 2023 to 2027 rate rebasing period.

Last year, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System Regulatory Office (MWSS-RO) disclosed its target of reducing Maynilad’s NRW to below 30 percent this year.

MWSS-RO chief regulator Patrick Lester Ty earlier mentioned that the water utility firms’ NRW last year stood at 34 percent, describing it as “high.”

“We have a plan right now for them to drastically reduce their non-revenue water,” Ty said.

“Basically, how I help them is, well, I push them, with a ‘carrot and a stick,’” he added, but did not elaborate.