Maynilad moves to minimize impact of El Niño

MANILA, Philippines — An additional 200 milliliters per day (mld) can be sourced from the ongoing projects of Maynilad Water Services Inc. in an effort to lessen the dependence on Angat Dam and as part of preparations to minimize the impact of the El Niño phenomenon, an official of the water concessionaire said.

“Actually, it (El Niño) will not only last until the first quarter of next year. It will start in the last quarter of this year and could extend into the first quarter, second quarter of next year, that’s the forecast. What we are saying is we need to prepare and we need to put onstream all the new plants,” Maynilad vice president and water supply operations division head Ronald Padua said in an interview with The STAR over the weekend.

Padua added that the additional 200 mld will come from the ongoing construction of various projects of Maynilad.

“We have new treatment plants like Poblacion, we have a plant in Cavite, what we call modular treatment plants. We already had the soft opening but we still need to finish all the activities, hopefully by next month, we can get the full 16 mld from the plant,” he said.

According to Padua, Maynilad hopes to source at least 50 mld once the Poblacion treatment plant becomes operational in the last quarter of this year and an additional 150 mld will be available by the first quarter of 2023, totaling to an additional 200 mld new sources of water until next year.

He said that Maynilad also needs to sustain the full operation of Putatan plants to sustain the water level of Angat Dam.

“We also continue reactivating our deep wells and lastly, we need to bring down the non-revenue water (NRW). We have a master plan in our efforts to replace the old piles,” he noted.

Padua said that when severe El Niño hit the country in 2010 and 2015, the water allocation for Maynilad and Maynilad Water reached 40 cubic meters per second (CMS).

“We do not know yet the severity of the El Niño, hopefully it is a mild El Niño,” he said.

According to Padua, Maynilad is short of at least 200,000 million liters per day with the current 48 CMS allocation given by the National Water Resources Board (NWRB).

“It (48 CMS) is not enough from the normal but we have augmentation as from Angat Dam, the water will reach Ipo Dam, and then La Mesa Dam. Ipo has its own watersheds so even if the water released from Angat is limited, the rains in Ipo augment our water supply for Metro Manila. Our fear is that in case the rains stopped in Ipo, that’s the time, there may be the possibility to resume the water interruption,” Padua said.

Maynilad announced the indefinite suspension of the nine to 11 daily water cutoff in Caloocan, Malabon, Manila, Valenzuela, Navotas and Quezon City with the improvement in the level of Angat Dam.

Padua said that Maynilad was able to bring down the number of households affected by the water interruption to 590,000 customers from the previous 1.2 million customers.

He said that from the 30 to 40 percent of customers who enjoyed 24 hours water service when Maynilad took over in 2007, it grew to 80 to 90 percent of customers who are assured of uninterrupted water supply.

Padua said that Maynilad filed a plea to the NWRB to increase the present 48 CMS allocation to prevent water interruption.

“That’s our plea to return the normal allocation but we also understand the position of NWRB that we need to prepare for El Niño. We continue to cooperate to preserve the water from Angat Dam,” he said.

In separate text messages to The STAR, NWRB Executive Director Sevillo David Jr. and Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System Deputy Administrator Jose Dorado Jr. said that they have yet to receive the request of Maynilad to increase the 48 CMS allocation.