Auditors call out high losses of Leyte Metropolitan Water District

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COA flags Leyte water district for its excessive losses, which exceed 34% in the last two years

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Audit called out the excessive water losses for the last two years of the Leyte Metropolitan Water District (LMWD).

What raised alarm bells for COA was the immensity of the losses of LMWD – around 8 million to 8.2 million cubic meters of water production each year of 2023 and 2024. 

The losses on both years exceeded the maximum rate allowed under provided by the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA).  

LWUA rules allow the limit of water production loss of districts at only 20%. However, COA’s compliance audit released on March 10, found out that LMWD lost 35.7% of its total water production in 2023 and 34.6% in 2024. 

The LMWD management told state auditors that since it signed a joint venture agreement in 2019, water supply and distribution operations are now under the private group Primewater Infrastructure Corporation.

In COA’s 2023 compliance audit, the LMWD already assured government auditors that it would look into the problems that are possibly the reason for the huge distribution losses. Its plan of actions included decommissioning old and dilapidated pipelines in downtown areas, a drive to eradicate illegal connections, and hiring of additional manpower to repair leaks.

Government auditors noted though that these were not implemented. “The non-revenue water (NRW) of LMWD as of December 2024 is still at 34.6% which is higher than the maximum acceptable level of 20 percent,” said. COA.

LMWD services Tacloban City and the municipalities of Palo, Tanauan, Tolosa, Sta. Fe, Pastrana, Tabon-tabon, and Dagami. – Rappler.com