No dancing just yet: Rains fail to resolve water supply shortage

Water consumers in Metro Manila and adjacent provinces should prepare for another round of supply shortage as the stock level in the Angat Dam continues to go down despite the onset of the rainy season.

Sevillo David, Executive Director of the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), said Monday in a press briefing Angat was expected to reach its critical low level of 160 meters above sea level (masl) by this weekend.

As of Monday morning, water level at Angat—the main source of raw water for the metropolis and nearby provinces like Bulacan, Rizal and Cavite—was pegged at 162.39 masl. This has been going down at about 0.4 meter daily.

“Although Pagasa announced that the rainy season has officially begun, [there was] insignificant rainfall in the Angat reservoir area in the past weeks,” David said. “Further, the weather bureau forecast that heavy rainfall is highly unlikely this week due to a monsoon break in the country.”

He said if prevailing conditions persisted, the 160-masl low mark could be breached by the third week of June. The last time this happened was in 2010, when a strong El Niño brought extremely dry conditions.

He said if this happened again, Angat Dam would reactivate its Low Level Outlet, which makes possible the drawdown of water below 160 masl. Cloud-seeding operations and reactivation of deep wells would also be conducted.

The NWRB already reduced the allocation of water from Angat to MWSS from 48 cubic meters (cu. m) per second to 46 cu.m effective last June 1. At 48 cu.m, Angat is releasing the full allocation to MWSS—and used by its concessionaires, including Manila Water Co. Inc. and Maynilad Water Services Inc.—equivalent to 4,000 million liters of raw water daily.

A reduction could “mean water service interruption, including reduced pressure and rotation of availability,” he added.

Ferdinand dela Cruz, president of Manila Water, said in a separate briefing reduced allocation could affect customers who are now enjoying 24-hour availability of water at 7 pounds per square inch at ground-floor level.

Dela Cruz said that as of June 16, 99.7 percent of Manila Water’s concession area—eastern Metro Manila as well as Rizal province —has water for at least eight hours daily. This includes about 90 percent of the East Zone that enjoys water for 24 hours daily.

Maynilad, meanwhile, has been announcing pockets of intermittent service interruption due to high demand and low water level at its reservoirs.