Gatchalian: Make Laguna de Bay a source of water to address supply crisis

FILE PHOTO: Laguna de Bay or Laguna Lake. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Tuesday proposed getting water from Laguna de Bay as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has admitted that the country is facing a water crisis.

Gatchalian said that his suggestion is just a stop-gap measure and stressed that the capital region needs more water sources.

“Ang nakita kong mga stop-gap measures dito kumuha ng tubig sa Laguna de Bay. Ginawa natin ‘yan a few times but, of course, you need a very big water filtration system doon,” he said in an interview at the Senate.

(Among the stop-gap measures I saw is to get water from Laguna de Bay. We did that a few times, but you need a vast water filtration system there.)

“Those are stop-gap measures, but moving forward, we need to have more supply dahil lumalaki ang Metro Manila (because Metro Manila is growing),” he added.

Angat Dam in Bulacan province supplies 98 percent of Metro Manila’s water needs.

The controversial Kaliwa Dam – which is undergoing construction – in Quezon will be the second water supply source, Gatchalian noted.

READ: Kaliwa Dam project gets tribes’ nod; tunneling in progress – MWSS

For the senator, it may be time to consider desalination.

“Nasabi ko nga kanina, maybe it’s time to look at desalination process. Medyo magastos ‘yan dati. Ngayon, baka mas mura na siya. Marami tayong tabing-dagat and we can get salt water, convert it to drinking water,” he said.

(As I said earlier, maybe it’s time to look at the desalination process. It was costly before. Now, it may be cheaper. We are surrounded by seas and we can get salt water and convert it to drinking water.)

On Monday, water service provider Maynilad announced that there would be daily water interruptions starting March 28 to conserve water as an El Niño phenomenon, or the unusually warmer than average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, looms.

Last week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed an executive order creating the Water Resource Management Office amid the water crisis.

KGA/abc