‘Water supply normal in 2 days’

The water shortage in the metropolis has started to ease and the situation is expected to normalize within the week, officials of Maynilad Water Services Inc. announced yesterday.

Maynilad supplies water to the western half of Metro Manila. Manila Water supplies the smaller eastern half.

Maynilad corporate communications manager Jess Matubis said the supply of water to Maynilad’s treatment plants in La Mesa has improved, bringing down to half the number of affected areas.

An estimated 600,000 people still have little or no water, Matubis said.

"We expect water supply to normalize in two days, in view of the stabilization of raw water releases to Metro Manila," Matubis noted.

"We would like to thank the National Water Resources Board, National Power Corp. and the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System for arranging and ensuring a stable and constant supply of raw water to maintain the Ipo Dam at its minimum operating level of at least 99.8 meters," he added.

Metro Manila’s water supply comes from Angat Dam in Bulacan province. From there, it runs through nearby Ipo Dam, also in Bulacan, before reaching water treatment plants in Metro Manila.

The water shortage began Wednesday last week when water from Angat was reduced because the water level there was several meters below normal.

Officials earlier warned that the situation could become critical if the water level at Angat continues to drop. Aside from supplying Metro Manila, Angat Dam also supplies water for irrigation in Bulacan and generates electricity for Luzon.

Last Monday, officials of the NWRB, Napocor, MWSS, National Irrigation Administration, Maynilad and Manila Water met and discussed the problem. It was agreed that Angat will supply water to Ipo Dam at 39 cubic meters per second and keep the dam’s water level at 99.8 meters, just above normal.

Water at Ipo dropped to 96 meters when the supply from Angat was reduced last week.

"We are normalizing water supply to our customers within the standards of 39 cms, in that sense that everyone in our concession will get water," Matubis said.

He emphasized that the supply in elevated areas in Metro Manila will be intermittent "but definitely, all customers being serviced by Maynilad will have water."

Maynilad’s La Mesa water treatment plant output has increased to at least 2,000 million liters per day (MLD), up from 1,300 MLD when water from Angat was cut. The treatment plants normal total output is 2,200 MLD, according to Matubis.

The MWSS has reiterated its appeal to the public to conserve water. MWSS administrator Orlando Hondrade stressed that Angat’s water level is seven meters below its normal level of 209 meters.

He warned that it might go down further if an El Niño dry spell forecast earlier by the weather bureau comes true.

The MWSS has projected the water level at Angat to become critical by March at 180.60 meters and go further down to 174.08 meters by April and 164.04 by June if the situation does not improve.