MCWD assures steady water supply

CEBU, Philippines - The Metropolitan Cebu Water District assured the public of steady water supply despite the rising temperatures this summer.

MCWD assistant general manager for operations Ernie Delco said that although MCWD’s Jaclupan facility, the largest source of water for Metro Cebu, experiences a drop in its water production during the summer months, it is still able to produce enough to serve the water needs of MCWD’s service area.

MCWD produces an average of 180,000 cubic meters of potable water per day from ground water and surface water sources.

For the first quarter this year, the average consumption of its 140,000 consumers reached 135,781 cubic meters per day.

Due to measures undertaken by the water district to meet the demand, the production during the same period reached an average of 185,175 per day, the highest in the last five years.

Delco said that water consumption is expected to further increase this month.

“We expect a higher consumption and demand for May. But while there are areas where consumption goes up, there are also places where the demand goes down, like the university belts,” said Delco in a press statement.

For the last two years, Delco said MCWD started a redundant supply program which ensures that there is always back-up water supply of about five to seven percent of the daily production.

MCWD has 115 ground wells which produced an average of 149,266 cubic meters daily last March.

Edgar Ortega, MCWD Distribution Division manager said that the additional supply from private bulk water suppliers has also helped a lot.

Genaro Mejor, MCWD Production Division manager said that the four private bulk water suppliers are augmenting MCWD’s supply with an average of 31,245 cubic meters per day in March alone.

MCWD’s only surface water source, the 100-year-old Buhisan Dam, is producing an average of over 9,000 cubic meters daily or about five percent of MCWD’s water supply production.

Delco said during the summer months, MCWD introduces a dam protection technique to maintain the water level of the dam by minimizing its evaporation.

Despite these measures, Mejor is still urging the public to conserve water.  (FREEMAN)