Power cuts, water shortage hit Philippines as dry spell persists

MANILA (AP) - Philippine authorities urged the public to preserve water and electricity Thursday as a prolonged dry spell in the traditional rainy season caused blackouts.

The state-run National Power Corp. said rains and typhoons, which historically hit the country by July, have not started, causing low water levels in at least five major hydroelectric power dams.

One power plant, at Caliraya Lake south of Manila, had to shut down, Science Undersecretary Graciano Yumul said.

He said if the situation does not improve by August, the state weather bureau may declare a drought in the capital, Manila, and elsewhere in northern Luzon.

Several areas in Manila experienced blackouts Wednesday, but coal and oil-fired thermal power plants provided temporary relief, the power distributor said.

It also blamed the shortages on some power plants undergoing maintenance and others breaking down.

The Philippines is vulnerable to energy supply fluctuations. Economists have warned that the country needs to build 6,000 megawatts of additional power generation capacity over the next 10 years to avoid a repeat of power cuts seen in the early 1990s.

As part of its power sector reform, the Philippines has been trying to privatize state-owned power generation and transmission assets. But the effort has so far only resulted in the sale of a handful of plants.

Weather forecaster Bobby Rivera said the dry spell was caused by a lingering ridge of high pressure in the northwestern Pacific, which is normally seen from April to May.

"Now it's almost August, but it seems it liked its position and does not want to move away," he said.

He said it was not clear if global warming was to blame.

"It is difficult to connect the dots," he said. "Statistically, the evidence is the higher frequency of hotter nights. That is the only statistical study that we can correlate to climate change in the Philippines."