Not flood but water cutoff disrupts life in Malabon, Navotas

There were no floods or heavy rains in Malabon City on Friday, but classes were suspended in half of the city’s barangays. Reason: The water supply was unexpectedly cut off to these barangays.

The supply pipe, operated by Maynilad Water Services Inc., was shut down on Thursday morning after a leak was reported by residents near  Lambingan Bridge along Gov. W. Pascual Street in Barangay Concepcion.

The shutdown affected 10 barangays in Malabon—Tañong, San Agustin, Ibaba, Concepcion, Baritan, Muzon, Bayan-Bayanan, Hulo,  Dampalit and Flores—and 10 more barangays in Navotas City: North Bay Boulevard South, North Bay Boulevard North, Daang Hari, Navotas East, Navotas West, San Jose, San Roque, Sipac-Almacen, Tangos and Tanza.

The emergency outage affected about half of the population of Malabon and  two-thirds of the population in Navotas.

Malabon Mayor Antolin Oreta III was forced to suspend classes from pre-school to high school in public and private schools in the 10 barangays, including classes in the City of Malabon Polytechnic Institute.

Bong Padua, of the Malabon public information office, said the pipe was shut down around 2 a.m. on Thursday after  residents reported the leaking pipe. But  news of the shutdown was  not announced to the public immediately.

“Maynilad told us they had to immediately shut down and conduct emergency repairs  because  the pipe could burst if not repaired right away,”  he said.

Residents near the leaking pipe, which Padua explained was a metal pipe large enough to fit a man standing inside, also blamed the ongoing rehabilitation of  Lambingan Bridge for the leak.

Angry residents took to social media to complain that they were not notified about the disruption of  water services. Others blamed the ongoing work on the bridge.

But Padua denied this was the case.

“Maynilad said the pipe is about 30 years old and had seen better days. It was supposed to be replaced in 2011, but a land dispute in the area kept them from working on the pipe, until this happened,” he said.

Padua added that Maynilad promised to restore the water service to the affected areas on Friday evening.