Busted valve delays water interruption

File photo/Profimedia.com, UPPA News

MANILA, Philippines—Customers of Maynilad Water Services were spared from a dry Holy Week but may still face a supply cutoff in the next few days. Most households had stocked up on water, with a number of hardware stores reporting they had run out of big plastic water storage barrels as early as Wednesday afternoon.

Maynilad cancelled the service interruptions that had been scheduled from Wednesday to Black Saturday in about 800 barangays in Metro Manila and neighboring Cavite province.

Although water supply was actually interrupted in some parts of Metro Manila, such as Las Piñas on Wednesday afternoon, water supply was restored Thursday morning, and the second part of the water disruption did not take place at all.

In a statement, the utility firm said it was forced to cancel the scheduled pipe realignment activity on Juan Luna and Hermosa streets in Blumentritt, Manila, because of a defective 30-year-old valve.

“The valve could not totally close off our primary line because it had a worn out disc. With water continuously flowing into our primary line, it became impossible for our contractor to realign a water pipe that would allow a flood interceptor box culvert of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to cross over the same pipe,” it said.

Maynilad said it had advised the DPWH’s National Capital Region office about this “unfortunate and unforeseen development” and that it would  hold a meeting with its engineers after the Holy Week to determine an alternative solution.

Maynilad’s corporate communications chief Cherubim Mojica said Saturday no new schedule had been drawn up yet regarding the pipe realignment project.

Asked if Maynilad would still be having service interruptions, Mojica explained that “at this point, we can’t be certain.”

“We need to revisit our engineering plans because of that defective valve. More importantly, we have to consider our customers because doing pipe realignment on a regular week would have a bigger impact on them,” she added.