Another water shortage looms

WATER distribution would soon be back as norm as utility companies announced the depletion of resources in the country’s main dams. AFP

Long lines of residents carrying basins and pails, half-full swimming pools in condominium complexes, and empty water containers piled outside fire stations.

These may be back for water consumers in Metro Manila to face anew as the level of water supply at the Angat Dam is only 6.77 meters above the minimum operating level as rainfall remains scant.

Based on the latest monitoring of the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), the current level of Angat Dam, the primary water source of Metro Manila, is at 186.77 meters as of 6 a.m. on Monday.

This current level can be compared to around 191 meters during the last week of September.

“Considering the recent decline of the water level in Angat Dam, a technical working group (TWG) of Angat Dam will be recommending to the NWRB to maintain the allocation for November of 40 cubic meters per second (CMS) for Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and reduction for irrigation from 30 cms to 17 cms.

It has to be noted that allocation for MWSS is still below the normal allocation of 46 cms,” NWRB executive director Sevillo David Jr. told Daily Tribune.

The NWRB official said the current water level in Angat is still within the operating zone.

“But if it falls below the normal operating level of 180 meters, then we have to prioritize the domestic water for the MWSS,” David said.

“This means that if the level is below 180 meters, then domestic supply would be prioritized over other uses, such as irrigation and power,” he explained.

According to Manila Water Company Inc. (MWC), which serves the East Zone of Metro Manila, around 52,000 households relying on their supply may be directly affected by the continuing decline in the dam elevations.

“Because of the decline in the dam levels, we may implement possible rotational water service interruptions. We will be posting our schedule on Tuesday morning,” Jeric Sevilla, head of Corporate Communications at MWC told Daily Tribune.

“We want to simply post an advance notice that we may implement interruptions if the level of the dams continues to go down. If ever, all cities and municipalities of the East Zone will experience water interruptions,” Sevilla warned.

Allocation to MWC and West Zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services Inc. from the NWRB through MWSS is now at 40 CMS, which is below the normal 46 CMS.

“Currently, we are only supplying water to our customers at the ground floor level due to reduced pressure, so we can evenly distribute water to all our customers,” Sevilla said.

In an advisory, Maynilad earlier warned of rotational service interruptions of up to 18 hours in the West Zone due to the decreasing level of Angat and Ipo dams.

Affected areas are Navotas, Muntinlupa, Manila, Malabon, Makati, Las Piñas, Caloocan, Parañaque, Pasay, Quezon City and Valenzuela.

It will also affect the cities of Bacoor, Kawit, Noveleta, and Rosario in Cavite and Meycauayan in Bulacan.

Only a few months after the water crisis faced by Metro Manila last March, lawmakers are now stepping in to address the problem.

In late September, three measures aimed to save rainwater were approved by the House Committee on Metro Manila Development.

The three House bills would require every new institutional, commercial and residential development project in the National Capital Region to construct a rainwater harvesting facility.

This is to save water for use during times of drought.

However, Congress failed to enact those measures into law.

Rainwater harvesting is among the solutions that the authorities are looking at.

In an earlier interview with Daily Tribune, MWSS chief regulator Patrick Ty said water desalination is still not a viable response to the country’s growing water requirement.

Ty said desalination has not yet achieved economies of scale that make it commercially attractive for investors in the Philippines.

“Kaliwa Dam is still our Plan A and I hope it would push through. It has been going on back and forth. The Kaliwa Dam is a project of the corporate office and, according to them, it is pushing through. But if it doesn’t push through, we are hoping to look into other resources. Wawa Dam is our plan B,” Ty said.

“Hopefully in the future, once proper and advanced technology is in place, then we can seriously look into it, especially that Laguna Lake could be tapped for this as it has the largest freshwater supply in the country. Otherwise, water would be too expensive for us,” he added.