Angat level drops; cloud seeding set

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Water at the Angat Dam in Norzagaray town in Bulacan province has dropped closer to its minimum operating level of 180 meters above sea level (masl), prompting the government to resort to seeding clouds with salt to generate rain, an official said.

The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) has been tasked to pay for the cost of the first 60 hours of cloud seeding amounting to P2.6 million since the priority is to ensure supply to more than 10 million residents in Metro Manila, according to a National Power Corp. (Napocor) statement quoting its president, Ma. Gladys Cruz-Sta. Rita.

Angat Dam’s water level receded to 187.03 masl on Wednesday.

The cloud seeding option was reached in a Wednesday meeting among officials of Napocor, the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), the MWSS and the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.

The BSWM said cloud seeding is efficient when the sky is filled with cumulus clouds.

The Napocor statement quoted MWSS deputy administrator Leonor Cleofas as saying that the agency’s main goal was to avoid disrupting the water supply of Metro Manila.

Sta. Rita said Napocor and its Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., the DA and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) would pool funds should there be a need to mount a second round of cloud seeding.

Napocor has reduced the discharge of potable water from 46 cubic meters per second (cms) to 41 cms this month to conserve water. It has also reduced irrigation supply for farms in Bulacan and Pampanga provinces to 14 cms, which would eventually be “discontinued to prioritize the domestic water supply for Metro Manila” should the level go down to 180 masl by mid-May, Sta. Rita said.

The dam’s hydroelectric power plant would limit its supply to 15 megawatts, she added.

Water was rationed in the country’s capital when Angat Dam’s level dropped to 167.55 masl when rain came late in 2010.

The dam is fed by the watersheds of Sierra Madre and Umiray River at the boundary of Aurora and Quezon provinces.

On April 14, Precioso Punzalan, assistant operations engineer of the NIA at Bustos Dam, said the agency had urged the National Water Regulatory Board against cutting off irrigation completely after April 23.

Bustos is one of the lower-elevation dams below Angat that receive Angat’s water discharges. Bustos Dam supplies the irrigation needs of 26,791 hectares of farmland in 17 towns in Bulacan and four towns in Pampanga. Reports from Tonette Orejas and Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon