2 water companies downplay shortage
MANILA, Philippines—Metro Manila’s two concessionaires on Thursday downplayed fears of a water shortage, saying the supply remains adequate to sustain normal operations.
“The supply from Angat Dam is sufficient as in previous years,” said Jeric T. Sevilla Jr., head of corporate communications at Manila Water Co. Inc.
“We always expect the water level to go down every summer,” Sevilla said in an interview. As of noon Thursday, he said the reading at Angat was at 181.21 meters above sea level, still above the critical 180 meters.
When the critical level is reached, he said, the dam will no longer release water for irrigation or power generation but supply for domestic use will continue.
According to Maynilad Water Service Inc., the advice from the National Water Resources Board (NWRB)—which is supervised by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources— was that the release of Angat water for domestic use would be stable at 42 cubic meters per second (cms) until December.
Cherubim Ocampo-Mojica, head of corporate communication at Maynilad, said the NWRB was continually studying whether to adjust the flow rate, but the weather bureau had also reported that rain was expected in the next few months.
To increase flow rate
Earlier this year, the NWRB reduced the flow rate allocation from the usual 46 cms to 41 cms, but the utilities appealed for an increase to 42 cms, which was granted.
Still, Manila Water believes the current water supply situation can support an even bigger volume. “We have a pending request to increase the flow rate to at least 43 cms,” Sevilla said.
Citing information from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), Sevilla said that while El Niño was expected in three months, to August, this period was not necessarily without rains.
“The expectation is that we will continue to receive normal or even above-normal rainfall,” he said.
Also, Sevilla said contingency plans were in place every summer months, with or without El Niño. These include the intensification of the company’s pipe leak repair program, the readying of deep wells—which are no longer used under normal operations—for additional sources of water, and water pressure supply management efforts.
The last one entails the possible reduction of water pressure during off-peak hours to ensure that pressure remains normal during peak hours. “In a worst-case scenario, we are prepared to deploy roving water tankers and to build static (overhead) tanks, but we have not had to do that in our concession area because of El Niño,” Sevilla said.
Agriculture Undersecretary Emerson U. Palad said in an interview on Thursday that based on Pagasa data, El Niño would not affect this year’s rice crop.
“The effects are expected to be felt in the latter part of the year, but the wet-season crop would have been harvested by September,” said Palad, who is in charge of the field operations service of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
“If ever, El Niño may have an impact on the succeeding crop season, which is due for harvest in the first quarter of 2015,” he added.
The DA is leading the reconvened task force on El Niño, which is preparing a plan to cushion the impact of a dry spell. Its field units have identified 44 provinces and two cities as “highly vulnerable” and “moderately vulnerable” to El Niño.
Highly vulnerable areas
The highly vulnerable areas include Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, La Union, Pangasinan and Cagayan provinces in Northern Luzon; Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales provinces in Central Luzon; Cavite, Rizal, Occidental Mindoro and Palawan provinces in Southern Luzon; Capiz, Iloilo and Negros Occidental provinces in the Visayas; Zamboanga City, Misamis Oriental, Sarangani and South Cotabato provinces in Mindanao.
Areas cited as moderately vulnerable include Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Mountain Province, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino provinces in Northern Luzon; Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, Romblon and Sorsogon provinces in Southern Luzon; Aklan, Antique, Bohol and Samar provinces in the Visayas; and Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Bukidnon, Davao Oriental and Davao City in Mindanao.
In a statement, Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said that as early as last month, the DA had been implementing cloud-seeding operations to induce rains in major watersheds and farming communities in Cagayan Valley that did not receive rainfall for at least a week.
Alcala said that with an increasing likelihood of a protracted dry spell, the DA would intensify cloud-seeding operations to save crops and other produce from damage, in cooperation with the Department of Science and Technology.
So far, the DA’s Bureau of Soils and Water Management has completed at least 28 cloud-seeding trips in Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and other areas in Cagayan Valley.
Further, the DA has also started to distribute shallow-tube wells and drought-tolerant crop varieties to help farmers in areas that would be most affected by the drought.
