MCWD targets 15% cut in Cebu water losses via Cisco deal

The Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) is tapping Cisco technology to cut water losses across its distribution network by 15 percent, potentially freeing up more supply for consumers as the utility grapples with aging infrastructure and growing demand.

The water district said Tuesday it is now working with Cisco to deploy real-time monitoring technology that would allow it to detect leaks and pressure problems faster and prevent them from escalating into pipe bursts and service disruptions.

For MCWD, bringing down non-revenue water (NRW) means squeezing more usable supply out of its existing system instead of losing treated water along the distribution network.

MCWD currently loses about 32 percent of its water supply before it reaches consumers, with old pipelines and valves, leaks, and pressure fluctuations weighing on the efficiency of its network.

The utility earlier set a target of bringing NRW down to 27 percent by the end of 2026, from 30.24 percent as of June.

“Metro Cebu continues to face increasing pressure on its water resource management, and reducing operational losses is critical to ensuring long-term supply reliability,” MCWD General Manager John DX S. Lapid said.

“With Cisco’s technology, we now have real-time insight into our distribution system, allowing us to respond faster to issues and deliver more efficient, reliable water services across Metro Cebu,” he added.

Under the deal, Cisco will install an end-to-end industrial architecture that uses smart sensors to monitor water flow and pressure conditions in real time.

The information will be fed into a centralized supervisory control and data acquisition platform, giving MCWD operations teams a live view of conditions across the network.

This would allow MCWD to spot sudden pressure drops, unusual flow patterns, and other anomalies that could indicate leaks before they result in larger water losses or disruptions to consumers.

The system will also be equipped with firewalls and zero-trust access to limit control of the infrastructure to authorized personnel and devices.

Cisco said the architecture is designed to support artificial intelligence-driven analytics, which could eventually allow MCWD to anticipate potential network problems instead of merely responding after they occur.

“Cisco's real-time intelligence across MCWD's infrastructure will strengthen the community's resilience. That's what the digital era is about: secure, connected technology solving real problems, improving lives, and narrowing the digital divide,” Cisco Philippines Managing Director Zaza Soriano-Nicart said.