Angat water could reach critical level by April 7

If the dry spell continues, the water at Angat Dam could reach the critical level of 180 meters by April 7 and if this happens, the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) might be forced to cut down water supply to farmlands.

"The water would not last long because the dam’s shape is conical. It has a smaller base, and the release of water is faster," Jorge Tioko, NWRB’s Monitoring Enforcement Division (MED) chief, said in a forum organized by the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) at the Orchid Garden Suite.

Tioko urged the public to conserve water "to stretch the water supply until the rainy season."

Shortage of water, he added, could be detrimental to the harvesting of crops.

The National Irrigation Authority (NIA) has asked that the water supply be sustained until April 15 when most crops are expected to be harvested.

The NWRB has already made a tentative water rationing schedule. Until April 13, it is releasing 12 cubic meters per second (cms) of water from Angat Dam.

The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) is allocated 41 cms and this can increase to 43 to 70 cms from May 1 to 31 this year, Tioko said.

"But this depends on whether the El Niño will persist," he added.

To lessen the impact of the looming water shortage, Tioko said the release of water should be optimized, the information and education campaign should be beefed up, leaks repaired, deepwell use maximized, and static water tanks, not mobile tankers, should be provided under the Patubig sa Barangay program.

Tioko said it was a blessing that a contractor was able to clear the Umiray Tunnel last week of logs and boulders washed down during last year’s typhoons, now allowing eight cms of water to flow daily.

From December to March, water from the Umiray River did not flow to Angat Dam. If this continued, the NWRB said the water level at Angat Dam could reach 158 meters by June.

With the reopening of the Umiray Tunnel, the NWRB forecasts that Angat’s water level would not be lower than 164 meters by June.

If the water reaches the 160-meter level, the dam could no longer yield potable water since below that mark, the watee could already be filled with silt.

Jess Matubis, of water concessionaire Maynilad Water Co., said they were able to increase water supply to their consumers, thanks to the water coming from the Umiray River.

At present, less than 30 percent of the Maynilad area, particularly the elevated portions of Quezon City, Valenzuela, Malabon, Manila and Parañaque, either has low water supply or no water at all.

Three days ago, the two water treatment plants at the La Mesa Dam released only 1,750 million liters a day (mld). This has been increased to 2,200 mld, although still below the normal service of 2,224 mld.

With the current El Niño, "We only wish that we can maintain it," Matubis said.

Matubis suggested that the government should look for alternative solutions. On Maynilad’s part, he said the company has been deploying 110 water tanks to areas that have low or no water supply.