Be ready to face heat, drought, & brownouts

WE had a number of unusually strong earthquakes last week – in Pampanga and Zambales on Monday, in Eastern Samar on Tuesday, then in Davao and Batangas on Wednesday. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are part of life in this country, which is on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Typhoons are also ordinary parts of our life, as we are right in the path of these annual weather disruptions moving from the Pacific to Asia.

For now, we have to endure the heat of summer and its effect on two of our most basic needs – water and electric power for our households, factories, and offices.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said Wednesday that Metro Manila and 16 provinces in Luzon and Visayas are facing drought conditions around the end of May. Bohol, Cebu, and Southern Leyte will have a dry spell, a slightly less severe condition than a drought. We used to have rains beginning in the last week of May, but not this year because of the El Niño spreading its heat from over the Pacific.

Because of the drought, the water level in our

dams has steadily gone down. The National Water Resources Board (NWRB) said the water level at Angat Dam, which supplies 96 percent of Metro Manila’s water needs and irrigation for 27,000 hectares of farmlands in Bulacan and Pampanga, was down to 181.63 meters last Wednesday, way down from its high level of 212 meters during the rainy season. It was expected to breach the minimum operating level of 180 meters this weekend, at which time, the release of water for irrigation water will be reduced. The water supply for Metro Manila stays, but the alert is on.

Also because of the summer heat, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said the demand in the Luzon grid has now exceeded the supply, so there will now be rotating brownouts in various parts of Luzon and Metro Manila. The recent earthquakes also forced unplanned outages in some power plants.

The summer heat, water shortage, power shortage – we should be ready to take all these coming problems in stride. They may be considerably intensified this year because of El Niño, but we have always survived these conditions in the past and we will again.