(Eagle News)—The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System on Saturday, March 16, vowed to solve the water shortage in 150 days.
MWSS administrator Reynaldo Velasco issued the statement after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the water regulator to demand from Manila Water a release of 150 days worth of water to address the same.
“Admittedly, we are on a catch up mode as far as water supply source is concerned since our main source which is the Angat Dam that supplies 96 percent of water to Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite and Rizal was built in 1967 and no major water source has been built since then except for some water supply projects from Laguna Lake by both Maynilad and Manila Water,” Velasco said.
He said in line with the order, the “MWSS through the approval of the National Water Resources Board has actually added 2 cubic meters per second (cms) to the 46 cms released daily from Angat-Ipo-La Mesa water systems which can only accommodate 4,000 million liters daily (MLD).”
He said the following measures were also undertaken:
- MWSS has requested the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) through its Executive Director Virgilio David to allow Manila Water to activate 101 deep wells which can supply 101 million liters daily to its consumers. Velasco said the NWRB has approved this request and Manila Water has started energizing and activating these deep wells.
- MWSS requested Maynilad to allocate 50 MLD and share water through cross border flow to ease the problem and increase the water supply needs of Manila Water including the deployment of water trucks to affected areas that will service or benefit 50,000 households in Quezon City, Parañaque and Taguig.
- MWSS has also directed Manila Water to activate and operationalize its Cardona, Rizal treatment plant which was originally operational in October 2018 enough to provide additional 100 MLD to its consumers. Manila Water President Dela Cruz announced that Cardona Treatment Plant is now energized with initial 24 MLD and will be fully operational with 50 MLD by end of this month.
- About 38 water tankers are delivering water to very hardest hit areas with LGUs vigorously helping in delivering water thru water tankers in their respective areas affected by water shortage.
- Maynilad is giving additional 10 MLD of their raw water allocation from the portal.
- San Miguel Corporation’s Bulacan Bulk Water through its president Ramon Ang has stepped in to help ease the plight of affected consumers in Metro Manila by providing potable water through deliveries of trucks to affected communities using its untapped 140 MLD in coordination with MWSS and LGUs.
“Admittedly, we are on a catch up mode as far as water supply source is concerned since our main source which is the Angat Dam that supplies 96 percent of water to Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite and Rizal was built in 1967 and no major water source has been built since then except for some water supply projects from Laguna Lake by both Maynilad and Manila Water,” Velasco said.
He said it was only since two years ago, under the Duterte administration, that serious efforts have been exerted to push for major water flagship projects such as: the 600 MLD Kaliwa Dam, the 500 MLD from Wawa Dam, the 800 MLD to be sourced from unutilized water from Angat-Norzagaray, the 350 MLD from Bayabas Dam, as well as the 500 MLD from Laguna Lake.
“We perfectly understand the presidential order to immediately resolve the problem to ease the burden of the consuming public,” Velasco said.
