Metro water supply normalizes

Water supply in Metro Manila, particularly in the west zone, started to normalize yesterday afternoon after a joint repair team of the National Power Corp. (NPC) and water concessionaires Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Co. Inc. succeeded in plugging the busted valve of an auxiliary turbine of the Angat Dam.

Maynilad, which manages the west zone concession, earlier predicted that the repair of the busted valve at the bypass auxiliary turbine No. 5 would take three days to two weeks, which would mean low water to no water supply to portions of Metro Manila.

But the repair was finished around noon yesterday, less than 24 hours after the NPC closed the bypass of the auxiliary turbine last Monday afternoon due to the damaged valve, which led to the reduction of water supply to Metro Manila.

Full normal water service to affected areas of the west zone was expected to resume by 8 p.m. yesterday.

Jess Matubis, Maynilad’s corporate communication manager, said the closure of the bypass of the auxiliary turbine by the NPC prevented the passage of raw water, resulting in the cutback in the volume of the raw water to Metro Manila, and consequently reducing the output of Maynilad’s La Mesa Treatment Plants 1 and 2.

Manila Water, which has exclusive use of water from La Mesa Dam, was unaffected by the breakdown.

"The valve gave in perhaps due to the water pressure. Besides, the valve is already old.  The repair team successfully fixed the problem much earlier than expected," Matubis said.

He said the water supply interruption only affected 10 percent of the west zone concession.

As a way to make up for the volume of water "lost" due to the closure of the bypass, Matubis said the NPC would increase water supply to Metro Manila to as much as 50 cubic meters per second of raw water, up from the normal 41 cms that Angat Dam has been supplying the metropolis since March this year.  – Katherine Adraneda