Rotational water interruption to hit MM tomorrow, may last until 2020
Water concessionaires Manila Water Company, Inc. and Maynilad Water Services, Inc. will both regularly implement rotational water service interruptions starting tomorrow, Thursday, which may last until next year if water level at Metro Manila’s major water sources will not improve over the next few months.
Spokespersons of Maynilad and Manila Water confirmed on Tuesday that all their customers in Metro Manila will experience shortage in water supply almost on a daily basis due to lack of rains, leaving all the dams in the metropolis dry.
The worst case scenario, they both agreed, will be that the water supply interruption will be felt until next year or as long as there wouldn’t be enough rains and no new water sources are coming online.
Metro Manila – home to more than 12 million people – gets its water supply from the Angat-Ipo-La Mesa water system.
Angat Dam currently supplies 97 percent of Metro Manila’s water needs, releasing about 4 million liters of water per day (mld), while La Mesa Dam is supposed to serve as a reserve for Manila Water.
As of Tuesday, the water level at Angat Dam was at 186.44 meters, which is way lower than its spilling level of 217 meters, while Ipo Dam was at 100.48 meters, also below its spilling level of 101 meters.
The water level at La Mesa, on the other hand, currently stood at 77.53 meters, likewise lower than its spilling level of 80.15 meters.
In a statement, Manila Water said its scheduled water interruption will be felt by all its 6.8 million customers and will range from 4 to 10 hours.
Affected areas include Rizal, Makati, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Pasig, Parañaque, Pateros, Quezon City, San Juan, Taguig, among others.
It’s the same case for Maynilad, which said it was “constrained to re-implement daily rotational water service interruptions in some portions of the West Zone starting the evening of October 24, Thursday”.
“There has been scant rainfall at the Angat and Ipo watersheds over the past few days, resulting in the continuous decline of raw water levels in the Angat and Ipo Dams. Since raw water allocation from Angat Dam for Metro Manila and adjacent provinces is still at the reduced level of 40 cubic meters per second (cms) – versus the normal allocation of 48 cms – the volume of raw water entering our treatment facilities is short by around 250 million liters per day (MLD),” Maynilad said.
“The re-implementation of rotational water service interruption is also part of the supply management efforts in preparation for the summer next year in case we are not able to reach the 212 meters level for Angat Dam,” it added.
At present, both water concessionaires are encouraging customers to use water responsibly to help them better manage the limited water supply.
Maynilad said it is now implementing mitigating measures to minimize the impact of the limited supply to its customers. These include construction of water treatment and storage facilities, supply and pressure management, activation of deep wells and installation of mobile treatment plants.
“If enough volume of raw water enters our treatment facilities, we can shorten or even postpone the scheduled service interruption. However, if the volume of raw water is not enough, then the service interruptions will happen as scheduled,” the company further said.
The only sure water project to come online in 2021 is the Wawa Dam project of port magnate Enrique Razon.
In September, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) conducted a series of public consultation on the possible tariff impact of the project to the customers of its lone off-taker, Manila Water.