Metro gets more water share from Angat Dam

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— Metro Manila on Thursday began receiving additional water share from Angat Dam in Norzagaray, Bulacan province, on Thursday, almost two weeks after irrigation supply was cut off to 27,000 hectares of farms in Bulacan and Pampanga.

The new allocation of 43 cubic meters per second (cms) to the capital’s more than 10 million residents would last for 14 days only, according to National Power Corp. president Gladys Cruz-Sta. Rita.

“This will give additional raw water supply to Ipo and La Mesa,” Sta. Rita said, referring to the dams that store supply for domestic water in Metro Manila.

As of 8 a.m. on Friday, water level at Angat dropped to 176.96 meters above sea level (masl) from the 177.18 masl recorded Thursday morning.

Although cloud-seeding operations since May 16 have been generating rain over Angat, these levels were still below the critical level of 180 masl.

Napocor explained that the “dry watershed is absorbing the rain water first.”

The good news, according to Napocor, is that the rate of water level reduction at Angat Dam has been slowed down by rains induced by cloud seeding over the area.

“Once the watershed is fully saturated with rainwater, we are expecting that the rains to come (in mid-June) will increase the dam’s water level,” Sta. Rita said.

Bulacan and Pampanga farms have lost 14 cms in irrigation water since May 12, but National Irrigation Administration officials said the Bustos Dam also in Bulacan had a stock of runoff water from Angat that should last until the last week of May. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon; and Riza Olchondra