
The reservoir water level, or RWL, of Angat Dam, which provides potable water to the majority of Metro Manila areas and nearby provinces, continues to decline, based on the latest monitoring of the weather state bureau PAGASA on Monday.
Based on the agency’s observation at 6:00 a.m., the RWL of the said dam is 207.78 meters, a -0.20 decrease from the 207.98 RWL recorded the previous day at the same time.
Its present RWL is -4.22 short of its normal high water level, or NHWL, of 212.00 meters.
The Binga Dam in Itogon, Benguet, however, registered the biggest drop in RWL in the past 24 hours, recording a -0.99 decline.
Its current RWL is 596.18 meters, which was 570.17 the previous day. Its present RWL is -5.82 lower than its 575.00 NHWL.
Magat Dam also incurred a -0.41 water level reduction from the RWL of 178.69 meters on Sunday to the current RWL of 178.28 meters, a -14.72 shortfall from its NWHL of 193.00 meters.
Other Luzon dams that exhibited a decline in water level are the Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija, the San Roque Dam in Pangasinan, and the La Mesa Dam in Quezon City.
Meanwhile, the Ipo and Ambuklao dams registered a 0.01 and 0.02 increase in their 24-hour water level deviation, respectively.
Moreover, Caliraya Dam’s water level is currently 287.92, 1.07 up from its previous RWL of 286.85. No NHWL was provided.
In an interview last week, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System said that Angat Dam’s water is still sufficient to supply Metro Manila and nearby areas despite its observed continuous water level decline.
MWSS Department Manager Patrick James Dizon said that the Angat Dam's water level is dropping at an average of 17 centimeters per day, noting that a drop in water level is normal due to a lack of rain in the watershed.
“But we were able to save this November and December, and we increased our normal high water level, which was supposed to be only 212 [meters], but we increased it to 214,” Dizon added. "The normal during the summer is that our dam falls at 30 centimeters, but right now it's only at 17 centimeters."