Leveling the playing field for Metro Manila's impoverished households

Abstract

Metro Manila's water privatization is one of the world's largest and longest-running privatization programs for a water utility. While traditional efficiency metrics show significantly improved service levels under this schema, local anti-privatization activists maintain that the program does not benefit the urban poor. Assessments from an equity lens offer a fresh perspective, using information from a consumer survey of 53,733 residential households, privatization reports, and field interviews. Results show that access and affordability remain critical concerns for impoverished urban households despite major service improvements. Philippine policy makers must address these twin concerns in order to ensure a level playing field for these vulnerable households.

Variations in household water affordability and water insecurity: An intersectional perspective from 18 low- and middle-income countries

“…Broadly, marginalized lower-income communities often use a higher proportion of their income to pay for water services (Cairns, 2018; Mirosa, 2015; Peloso and Morinville, 2014; Rosinger and Young, 2020; Subbaraman et al, 2013). In Metro Manila, for instance, Torio (2018) found the most socio-economically disadvantaged households connected to the privatized water system pay between 7% and 11% of their monthly income for water, compared with an average of 3%–4% for other socio-economic classes. In Texas, Jepson and Brown (2014) documented households in colonias (unincorporated and often lower-income Mexican / Mexican-American communities excluded from municipal boundaries and centralized water services) spend 7% of their monthly income, on average, for water.…”

Metro Manila's 2019 water crisis: Of efficiency traps and dry taps

“…Rather, we concentrate on the complex issues that may have contributed to the 2019 Metro Manila water crisis, when the concessionaires were operating under conditions of high efficiency and service levels. For discussions on Metro Manila's water privatization, viewed from both efficiency and equity lenses, as well as insights on linkages between rural-urban water equity issues surrounding Metro Manila's water system, please refer to Torio (2018) and Torio et al (2019).…”

“…Any excess water from the portal flows to the La Mesa Dam for additional supply of the Balara treatment facility (MWSS, 2014a). As a "north to south" water infrastructure system, water from the north of Metro Manila traverses through more than 10,000 km of pipelines, 35 pumping stations, and 25 reservoirs before reaching the households in the southern peripheries of the metropolis (Torio, 2018).…”

“…It should be noted, however, that improved service levels have consequences for water demand, particularly for households able to connect to the concessionaires' networks. Under such service levels, newly connected Metro Manila households generally double their water consumption levels (Torio, 2018). With extensively more household connections, coupled with increased water consumption, urban water demand surged dramatically over the years, necessitating a review of Metro Manila's water supply situation.…”