Concerted effort

Metro Manila residents are feeling the heat literally, with temperatures already reaching as high as 34 degrees Celsius.

And with the rising temperatures comes what most Metro Manilans dread: reduced water levels in Angat Dam, which supplies 97 percent of the metropolis’ water requirements.

But to avoid a repeat of last summer’s water shortage which severely affected around 1.2 million households, the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) has reduced the water allocation to Metro Manila’s two water distribution concessionaires from Angat Dam from the normal 48 cubic meters per second to 40 CMS for Metro Manila and nearby provinces last year, and raised it slightly to 42 CMS in January. 

The NWRB took this drastic action last year after Angat Dam’s water level plunged to below-critical levels due to scant rainfall in 2019.

 But experts say that while Angat Dam’s water elevation had improved to 201.72 meters, the ideal end-of-year  elevation is 212 meters  to ensure adequate water supply for  Metro Manila. A water elevation  of 160 meters is considered critical. 

 Given this challenging water supply situation ahead of summer, Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Co. are set to implement a rotational water supply scheme in Metro Manila, even as they assured that no household will suffer a lack of water for 24 hours straight. 

 Several areas have been experiencing water service disruptions since October as a result of Angat Dam’s below-normal water level.

Maynilad and MWC currently serve some 16.5 million consumers in the east and west zones of Metro Manila and some parts of Rizal, Laguna, Cavite and Bulacan. 

The two water concessionaires have assured their customers that they have already crafted mitigation plans as early as last year,  and  are now implementing proactive measures to ease Metro Manila’s water woes this summer. 

Maynilad, for one, has announced that it will mount cloud-seeding operations starting this month and deploy modular water treatment plants that will draw water from small rivers in Cavite. The cloud-seeding operations will depend on weather reports from PAGASA on whether there are seedable clouds near Angat Dam, according to Maynilad water supply operations chief Ronald Padua. 

 Maynilad  is also  optimizing the use of  its two Putatan water treatment facilities in Muntinlupa, which draw water from Laguna Lake, and is reactivating several deep wells to increase Metro Manila’s water supply. 

Maynilad chief operating officer Randolph Estrellado said the company, which supplies water to Metro Manila’s west zone, is also reducing water leaks through the replacement of pipes and other repairs. 

 The concessionaire  inherited one of the oldest pipe networks in Asia, with some segments dating back to the Spanish times. After pouring millions worth of investments, the company has already replaced over 2,500 kilometers of old pipes and repaired more than 360,000 pipe leaks since 2008. 

 Maynilad was expected last month to complete its non-revenue water or leakage reduction program.

 In December last year,  Maynilad finished reactivating deep wells. It is also expected to soon finish its Cavite dam.

 On top of these, Maynilad is pursuing more mitigation steps, like deploying 69 mobile water tankers and putting up 32 stationary water tankers.

 With its NRW management program, Maynilad has managed to recover 979 MLD daily—a volume large enough to fill 390 Olympic-sized pools per day that can supply potable water to 1.7- million households in the metropolis.

For his part, Padua  said that while these measures are being implemented, consumers are still expected to practice water conservation to ensure that water remains available to every household in Metro Manila’s west zone. 

And because the simultaneous withdrawal of water from the pipelines affects water pressure, Maynilad has strongly advised its customers to just store enough water that they will need for the duration of a service interruption. 

Some customers may also experience slight water discoloration upon resumption of service. Discoloration is a natural consequence of service interruptions, as the returning flow of water tends to scrape the mineral deposits from the internal lining of pipes. Maynilad is reminding customers to let the water flow out until the supply clears. 

The implementation of daily rotational service interruptions will be in effect for as long as the raw water allocation given to Maynilad from Angat Dam is below its requirement. These  reduced allocations will remain in effect until June 2020.

The NWRB is continuously  monitoring the Angat and Ipo Dams to check if the water levels improve enough to raise the allocation.

According to NWRB, if every Filipinos saves four liters of water a day, this would mean savings of 60 million liters per day. These water savings can go a long way in ensuring that water levels in Angat Dam will recover enough for NWRB to increase the water allocations.

Meanwhile, President Duterte has finally pursued, with the help of official development assistance (ODA) from China, what his predecessors had forever put on the back burner, which is to build the Kaliwa Dam as the national capital’s alternate water supply reservoir. 

 Unfortunately, it will take four to five years to complete the Kaliwa Dam, which the Duterte administration is building to the tune of P12.2 billion. This means that Metro Manila’s water woes could get worse in the next half-decade before it could get any better.

 Thus, water conservation remains an indispensable element in ensuring that Metro Manila and nearby areas do not suffer a repeat of last year’s water shortage.

 For comments, e-mail at [email protected]