The most secure new source of raw water for Manila Water Co. Inc. may not be ready until 2021 and, until then, the company may have to depend on temporary solutions such as deep wells and shared supply from Maynilad Water Services Inc.
According to Manila Water, it has so far whittled down its supply deficit by almost two-thirds to 57 million liters daily from an average of 150 MLD.
Company president Ferdinand dela Cruz said in a press briefing its new treatment plant in Cardona, Rizal, was now adding 50 MLD to Manila Water’s supply.
The concessionaire of Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System’s (MWSS) East Zone is also getting about 33 MLD from recently activated deep wells.
Maynilad, which has agreed to share as much as 50 MLD from its own brand-new treatment plant in Putatan, Muntinlupa City, is so far able to deliver between 11 and 13 MLD.
“Phase 2 of our Cardona project will give us an additional 50 MLD and while waiting for [another] surface water option, the NWRB (National Water Resources Board) has given us the go signal to develop more deep wells,” Dela Cruz said.
He was referring to the Rizal Well Field initiative, which, according to the MWSS, could supply 50 MLD. However, deep wells are not a long-term solution as these ultimately have to be plugged to allow the underground water reservoir to replenish naturally.
For lasting solutions, Dela Cruz said Manila Water was working on three. One is the Wawa Calawis project, which could provide up to 512 MLD—of which the first 80 MLD could be made available by 2021.
Second is a 300-MLD project of the AMA Group that intends to tap raw water from Laguna de Bay.
Third is the Sierra Madre project that could provide 750 MLD and is expected to be online between 2023 and 2025.
“All these three are still in the level of technical working groups,” Dela Cruz said. “We are working with the proponents of these three projects.”
This develops even as the United Nations warned that there may be many dry years ahead.
A joint study prepared by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) found that the area affected by drought was likely to shift and expand.
Released last week, the report titled “Ready for the Dry Years: Building resilience to drought in Southeast Asia” noted that droughts could have cumulative impacts, striking hardest at the poor and heightening inequality as well as degrading land and increasing the prospects of conflict.
The 68-page report found that, over the past 30 years, droughts have affected more than 66 million people in Southeast Asia, with Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines being the worst-hit countries.
“Most of the economic impact of drought, around four-fifths, is absorbed by agriculture,” the report said. “While the impacts of drought on agriculture sector employment as a whole is yet to be quantified among Asean countries, agriculture employs 26 percent [of labor] in the Philippines.”