The Carriedo water system

Friends who bought Orocan containers at a premium during the recent water service interruption are now scratching their heads wondering what to do with them because they take up precious space in their small toilets.

In 19th-century illustrations of Filipino homes, you will often see a large earthenware jar or  tapayan  (in Malay, tempayan) at the entrance of homes with a dipper for washing one’s feet before entering. In Intramuros and the suburbs (“extramuros”), people collected rain water from the roof or gutters and stored these in jars. Aguadores drew from the Pasig and peddled it from house to house.  Pasig water was not potable and, even for domestic use, was strained with cloth or passed through stone water filters. Drinking water was another matter and the best came from San Pedro Macati and San Mateo, or the springs in Malinta Diliman Maybonga and San Juan del Monte.

Water was an issue for Spanish Manila as early as the 16th century. Being an archipelago, there was a lot of salt water around, but fresh water for drinking and cooking was another matter. It takes a bit of a stretch for the urban Filipino to imagine a time when water was not readily available from the tap.

The person who started it all was Francisco de Carriedo y Peredo (born in Santander in 1690; died in Manila in 1743). He arrived in the Philippines in 1722, in charge of the galleon Santa Familia. He married the daughter of Toribio Jose Miguel de Cosio, governor-general from 1721-1729. In his will Carriedo declared: “During my marriage, no child, son or daughter was born to me,” but the newspaper Oceania Española reported he had a son named Lucas living in Manila.

Carriedo made his fortune from the Galleon Trade and at the time of his death left P77,000 in cash as well as reliquaries, property and shares in galleon cargo. He gave generously to the church and requested to be buried in the habit of a Franciscan lay brother, with money to be distributed to prisoners and inmates of hospitals on the day of his funeral. He left P14,000 to the City of Manila, with P10,000 invested for a water system and P4,000 for an industrial school for beggars. The part of his will of interest to us states:

“I hereby declare that in the month of December 1733, I wrote to this city and to its merchants, offering them the sum of 10,000 pesos to carry water by means of a pipe line from San Pedro Macati, under terms and conditions laid down in the said proposal. This offer was considered by them at a meeting of the municipal board on November 5, 1734; but, after discussion, this acceptance was deferred. But since it has always been my purpose to take my part in a work that is acceptable to God, because of the great benefit that may accrue to the poor therefrom, I hereby request my executors after my death, when the value of my property has been estimated, to insist on the city and its merchants accepting 10,000 pesos, under similar conditions which I do not wish changed or altered, excepting only that the place whence the water may most easily be carried may be changed if it shall be found more convenient to bring water from the Maybonga River along the right bank of the Pasig to Santa Cruz, and not from San Juan del Monte. On these terms alone shall the 10,000 pesos be handed over.”

The fund was known as the “Caja de Carriedo” and was kept in a chest with three locks, with one key given to the alcalde (mayor), the second to the oldest representative of the merchants, and the third with the oldest regidor (alderman). The fund, later known as the “Obra Pia de Aguas” (Pious Works for Water), was to be kept separate from city funds. Its principal could not be spent but invested, even in risky ventures, to reach the desired amount. Portion of the fund was set aside as insurance against the loss of a galleon or default of a loan or bad investment. Initial earnings were looted during the British occupation in 1762 but the remainder was reinvested and grew such that part of it was used in 1778 to help build the Hospicio de San Jose.

So the first water system in the Philippines, inaugurated in the 19th century, came about because of Carriedo’s donation leaving us today with Carriedo Street and a commemorative fountain in downtown Manila with a replica in the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System headquarters in Balara.

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