An ordinary costumer of the Maynilad Water Services Inc. will start paying next week as much as P55.8 more per month due to a rate hike approved by the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS). For many of its clients in the west zone of Metro Manila, the increase is deplorable because of the rising cost of living and worse, the rate hike is not even meant to improve the dismal service of Maynilad but to make its planned reprivatization more attractive to potential buyers.

How can the MWSS and Maynilad, for example, justify the rate hike to around 100,000 residents of 16 barangays in Bagong Barrio, Caloocan City? Many of the residents from Barangays 142 to 157 here have been waterless for more than a year and yet they continue to pay the minimum monthly bill to Maynilad as they worry of high reconnection fees once water becomes available.

In August 1997 when it took over the west zone from MWSS, Maynilad’s all-in tariff (basic rate plus other charges) was only P7.21 per cubic meter (cu. m). Based on the January 2006 adjustment, its all-in tariff has now reached P32.05 per cu. m, or more than four times its level nine years ago. Yet, almost three out of every 10 people in its service area are still without water supply and daily, water is not available for 3-4 hours in the west zone.

Under privatization, water rates are surely to soar to protect the commercial viability of the private water utility. Effective service and access to water by the poor and marginalized become secondary. Indeed, efficiency in a privatized set-up is measured not in terms of whether everyone, regardless of his or her capacity to pay, enjoys 24-hour water supply but in terms of profitability. This explains why privatization supporters consider Manila Water as a “good case” of privatization because it is making money. Never mind if the Ayala-led firm, in spite of a 391% hike in its all-in tariff since 1997, has performed as miserably as Maynilad in terms of providing efficient water services.

The government must seriously rethink its policy of water privatization. Especially in a poor country like the Philippines, where almost nine out every 10 families could not afford a decent living, the state must ensure that water services are available and affordable for the people. The MWSS experience shows that this will never be possible under privatization.