PAGASA declares onset of rainy season

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippine Atmospheric and Geophysical Services Administration has officially announced the start of the rainy season.

The announcement was made yesterday by PAGASA Visayas chief Oscar Tabada. The announcement, Tabada explained, was based on criteria set by state weather bureau.

These include presence of a tropical cyclone, shift from northeast monsoon (Amihan) to southeast (Habagat), extreme west provinces of the country experiencing at least one millimeter of rain.

Tabada added that the onset of rainy season is done as soon as at least one of the criteria is experienced.

For this year, all these were felt that prompted authorities to formally announce the beginning of the wet season.

The weather official continued to explain that the season usually falls on the month of May but since this year a dry spell has occurred, the wet season started later than normal while also expected to end sooner.

“El Niño has started this month of June. But we will still experience rains this month and even more in July, especially since we have tropical cyclone Ester now. This is a chance for us to make use of the rain before the dry spell is felt starting October and the first quarter of 2015,” Tabada explained.

Furthermore, Tabada urged local government units to take time to store rain water as well as encourage their constituents to do the same while we are still experiencing rain.

“We all know that most of Cebu and Central Visayas rely on rainwater. Since El Niño is happening and will be felt late this year and early next year, kinahanglan mag andam na ug daghang barrels to store rain water. Aron duna tay magamit inig nihit na ang uwan,” he stressed.

Tabada enumerated, in his lecture before government information officers during the regional information summit in Cebu City, the characteristics of El Niño; namely extended dry season, early end of rainy season, weak monsoon activity, less number of tropical cyclones, above normal sea level pressure, above normal air temperatures and generally drier weather conditions.

These were in contrast with the traits of La Niña including short dry season, early onset of rainy season, strong monsoon activity, more tropical cyclones, below normal sea level pressure, and generally wetter weather conditions.

Tabada stressed that the public should not be happy that El Niño will cause less-than-normal number of tropical cyclones because a lot of industries and households depend on the rainwater that these weather systems bring.

Meanwhile, despite the declaration of the onset of rainy season, Metropolitan Cebu Water District has continued to ask its consumers to conserve water.

“Ang uwan mura og wa ra nay epekto tungod kay mid-June mosud na ang El Niño. We will continue to have deficit sa atong water supply,” said MCWD public affairs manager Charmaine Rodriguez-Kara.

In a statement, MCWD said that the production deficit is partly due to the decrease in production of Jaclupan wellfield in Talisay City and of Buhisan Dam in Cebu City during the dry spell.

For instance, the June 9 target production was 203,216 cubic meters per day but actual production was only 191,379 cubic meters per day or a production deficit of 11,837 cubic meters per day.

“The public is enjoined to use water wisely and store water during lean usage hours of the day or during night time when water pressure in the pipeline is sufficient,” the statement reads.

Kara added that rains help in their production but not enough to cope up with the water demand daily.

MCWD, however, said that the completion of its new wells such as G-10 in Guadalupe, W-23 in D. Jakosalem St., Can-8 in Canduman, Tom-1 in Talamban and the wells Mac-10, 11 and 12 in Barangay Pajac in Lapu-Lapu City are being fast track to hit the target date of commissioning on June 30.

The new wells are expected to augment its water supply by 5,000 cubic meters per day.

MCWD is also waiting for the delivery of the bulk water supply from Abejo Waters that is expected to be delivered within the month. It will give an additional 11,500 cubic meters daily which will be injected in its wells located in Barangay Pit-os in Talamban and Barangay Cabancalan in Mandaue City. — /FPL(FREEMAN)