Adequate water supply ensured amid El Niño

MALOLOS – Water supply for Metro Manila households as well as rice farms in Bulacan and Pampanga will be adequate during the dry months despite risks posed by El Niño in the first and second quarter of the year, officials said yesterday.

This developed after the water elevation at Angat Dam in Bulacan reached more than two meters above its ideal end-of-the-year level of 212 meters yesterday.

Manuel Lukban Jr., chief of the Bulacan disaster risk reduction and management office, told The STAR that Angat’s water level was at 214.2 meters as of 11 a.m. yesterday.

Lukban said that normally, when the dam’s water elevation reaches 212 meters on the last day of the year, supply for Metro Manila households and farms in Bulacan and Pampanga would be adequate for the coming dry season.

Lukban said the dam has been releasing 50 cubic meters per second of water to Metro Manila and 20 CMS to its downstream river system.

He said the water elevation in Ipo and Bustos dams were at 100.87 and 15.20 meters, respectively.

Ipo’s spilling level is 101.00 meters, while Bustos is at 17.35 meters.

Water discharged from Angat goes to its downstream river system and to Bustos Dam, Lukban said.

Due to this, dam operators opened Bustos’ spillgates to release 10 CMS of water to the dam’s downstream river system.

Francisco Clara, chief of Bustos’ water control and coordinating unit, said they started releasing yesterday irrigation supply to the dam’s north and south service irrigation zones, to flush out garbage that accumulated in the irrigation canals.

“Today, regular irrigation supply for Bustos’ service irrigation canals will start for the dry rice cropping season this year,” Clara said.