'MWSS must pay 4-billion debt first before Angat dam takeover'

MALOLOS CITY, Philippines  – The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) must first settle its more than P4-billion debt with the administrators of the Angat dam before it is allowed to take over the management of the reservoir, which is Metro Manila’s principal water source.

Rodolfo German, general manager of the Angat River Hydro Electric Power Plant (Arhepp), said in a telephone interview the P4 billion represented the 15 cubic meter of water per second borrowed by the MWSS in 1997.

“We lost more than P4 billion when they borrowed the 15 cubic meter per second water allocation for farmers in 1997,” German said.

The MWSS was entitled to 22 cms of water from the Angat dam since it contributed P21 million for the construction of the dam in the early 1960s.

The allocation was raised to 46 cms between 1997 and 2000 with the onslaught of El Niño.

With the MWSS’s borrowing of 15 cms, German said Bulacan and Pampanga, in effect, had to make do with lower allocation from the dam in 1997 or at the height of a dry spell.

The government promised compensation to Bulacan and Pampanga farmers but no compensation came.

Liza Sacdalan, secretary general of the Provincial Agriculture and Fisheries Council (PAFC) and chair of the Central Luzon Organic Rice Producers Association (Clorpa), said local farmers have been losing P500 million to P1 billion annually since 1997 as a result of the lower allocation for irrigation from the Angat dam.          

Meanwhile, a National Power Corp. (Napocor) official who spoke on condition of anonymity said their being blamed for the water shortage might be part of an attempt to discredit them so that MWSS can wrest control of the Angat dam.

Another Napocor official said their critics in the Aquino administration had not taken into consideration the abnormal weather pattern and the damaged pipelines of the Maynilad Water Services Inc.

With Angat’s rising water level, Maynilad officials said they would deploy fewer water delivery tanks in Metro Manila in the coming days. – With Rhodina Villanueva