Cisco announced a collaboration with the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) to modernize the city’s water infrastructure. MCWD will use Cisco’s networking and industrial edge technologies to reduce non-revenue water (NRW) – treated water that is lost before it reaches the consumer – by 15% across its distribution network.
This initiative, under the Cisco Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program, marks a significant step in securing the region’s water supply, with the aim to protect and efficiently deliver critical resources to the communities that need them most.
Modernizing infrastructure to build a more resilient water future
Metro Cebu is under significant water stress, with around 32% of supply lost due to aging infrastructure like old valves and pipelines. Pressure fluctuations and leaks often go unnoticed, hindering MCWD’s ability to meet the growing demand.
Cisco is implementing a secure, end-to-end industrial architecture that uses smart sensors to track water flow and pressure conditions in real time. The data is funneled into a centralized supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) platform to provide operations teams with a live, end-to-end view of the network. This allows them to catch anomalies such as sudden pressure drops or unusual flow patterns before they trigger costly pipe bursts or impact the population.
Underpinning the architecture is industrial-grade secure networking, including firewalls and zero-trust access, to ensure that only authorized personnel and devices can manage this critical infrastructure. This architecture is also built to support AI-driven analytics, enabling MCWD to move beyond simple anomaly detection toward anticipating issues before they occur. This allows MCWD to protect the network against water loss and operational disruptions.
“Metro Cebu continues to face increasing pressure on its water resource management and reducing operational losses is critical to ensuring long-term supply reliability,” said Atty. John DX S. Lapid, General Manager of MCWD. “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.”
“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.” said Zaza Soriano-Nicart, Managing Director, Cisco Philippines. “This collaboration also sets a benchmark for our public utilities, showing how technology can modernize operations and support broader sustainability goals.”
The solution will be piloted in the F. Pacaña area. Designed to be scalable, it provides a framework that allows MCWD to expand visibility and NRW reduction across Metro Cebu without having to redesign its systems from the ground up.
