EAST Zone concessionaire Manila Water said its service coverage has expanded to total of 1,132,976 water service connections as of the first half of the year, which translates to 7.4 million residents receiving water services.

In a statement on Thursday, Manila Water said 95 percent or 1,077,017 of the total water service connections are domestic customers while 5 percent or 54,399 are commercial and industrial customers.

In nearly 10 years, the East Zone concessionaire's service connections increased by 21 percent as there were only 896,148 water service connections in the East Zone by end of 2012, covering 6.2 million population.

"While Manila Water is committed to continue to upgrade existing and construct new facilities to ensure service continuity in the East Zone, it is more critical to search and develop alternative water sources to be able to meet the ever-increasing demand in our service area," said Manila Water President and Chief Executive Officer Jocot De Dios.

De Dios said Manila Water continues to closely work with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) in developing new water sources even as the agencies have approved the implementation of the much-needed interim additional sources to address the increasing demand.

Manila Water said its P2.7-billion East Bay Water Treatment Plant (WTP) is currently under construction that will draw water from the eastern part of Laguna Lake, considered the cleanest portion of the lake. The East Bay WTP is part of the East Bay Water Supply System Project that seeks to expand Manila Water's services to more towns in Rizal Province.

The WTP project includes an eight-million-liter (8 ML) capacity reservoir, an intake structure, pumping station, and Water Treatment plant using Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) system, multi-media and granular activated carbon (GAC) filters as well as Reverse Osmosis system.

"We need to ensure that we are able to provide the same quality of service to all our customers, no matter how exponentially their number grows. This means continuously investing into water security and service continuity projects, such as building new water treatment plants and upgrading our distribution system," De Dios said.