Explanation holds no water

El Niño? Come on Manila Water… Dams don’t dry up overnight. Something happened… maybe a colossal management mistake or miscalculation… and there is no intention to own up to it.

El Niño is predictable and plans for it should have been laid out. Contingency plans to prepare the public is expected of the concessionaires. If a shortage is inevitable, water tankers should be secured to distribute in hard-hit barangays.

One thing we don’t want to happen is to surprise the public like what happened last week. So Manila Water blames El Niño? But Maynilad is operating normally and they draw from the same Angat Dam.

By citing the low La Mesa Dam level, Manila Water is making it look like minalas lang sila. That claim muddles the presentation of the problem. Let us review how the system works, just to be clear. 

Angat Dam in Bulacan provides about 97 percent of Mega Manila’s water requirements. The water from Angat flows to La Mesa where part of the water volume feeds into to the Maynilad treatment plant and the balance continues into the La Mesa reservoir. 

The water in La Mesa reservoir then feeds into the Manila Water’s Balara treatment plant where it is then treated for the East Zone customers. The La Mesa reservoir is used exclusively for Manila Water.

In the event that Angat levels deteriorate, Manila Water has the advantage of sourcing from its reservoir in La Mesa. La Mesa is only a back-up source for Manila Water.

Water managers monitor the levels of Angat because that is the source of Mega Manila’s water.  Currently, the water level in Angat is normal for this time of the year and the allocation for Manila Water and Maynilad has not decreased. 

That is why this whole situation is baffling – Manila Water has been getting its normal allocation from Angat and temperatures haven’t been particularly intense to explain a rapid evaporation scenario – there is no reason for La Mesa to dry up.

I have asked my usually reliable sources and I am told that Manila Water has been drawing 1750 million liters a day (mld) from La Mesa when their share of the 60:40 split coming from Angat is only 1600 mld. This resulted in the depletion of La Mesa Dam.

Other sources think there is something more that Manila Water is not telling us. Maybe someone, in anticipation of the effects of El Niño, tried experimenting with valve management at La Mesa and screwed up.

Then maybe the number of Manila Water’s customers grew beyond the supply of water it can distribute. They were feeding new customers out of gains from a campaign to reduce non revenue water or NRW. At 10 percent NRW, nothing much more can be cost effectively squeezed out given technical limitations. But this is a problem that should cause no surprises.

Assuming no management miscalculations and that the Ayala firm is a victim of the weather, why was the problem kept from the public?

Precautionary measures could have been adopted by Manila Water. Instead we woke up one morning with dry faucets and no plausible explanation except to blame the weather. This Ayala concessionaire is expected to manage better than government.

The privatization of the water distribution service in Metro Manila had been cited as a model in various international fora. Ayala has the moral obligation to see to it that the private sector is seen to perform better than government. That’s the strongest reason for PPP.

In fairness to Manila Water, I have been its customer since privatization and I will attest that service had vastly improved. We have 24/7 water and in the right pressure. Our water tank has deteriorated from disuse.

But as in any public service, one is only as good as the service you provide today. Past accomplishments mean nothing. And because much is expected from the private sector, the bar is set a lot higher.

True, the government had been the roadblock to the proper planning of future sources of water for Metro Manila. We need to diversify from total dependence on Angat and to provide for population growth.

A proposal from San Miguel to develop new water sources had been shelved by two administrations prior to this one without even a good discussion.

The Aquino administration had been slow to act, but they left the Kaliwa Dam project with two prequalified bidders for a PPP venture. The Duterte administration, however, changed the mode to China funding and nothing has moved yet.

The use of Angat water for power generation will likely be limited to what water will be released for our domestic use. The Bulacan farmers who depend on Angat for irrigation will probably be sacrificed.

But the Bulacan bulk water system is already operational and it also depends on Angat. Metro Manila water users will have to share water from Angat with Bulacan households. After all, Angat is in Bulacan.

The immediate solution involves a cross border deal with Maynilad. But I remember when things were reversed in the past, Manila Water wasn’t too helpful to Maynilad.

Remember the murky waters from Angat after weeks of heavy rains that forced Maynilad to reduce production. Manila Water could have shared water from La Mesa Dam which already had time to settle sediments for better water clarity. But no help came or was offered. 

Still, I am glad to learn Maynilad decided to share water supply, but it isn’t as easy now with the old cross border connection abandoned. New pipes will be needed. The MPIC/DMCI owned Maynilad is also sharing water tanks with Manila Water during the emergency. 

The crisis for Manila Water customers will only get worse. But in the meantime, let’s have the truth from Manila Water. Their current explanation simply doesn’t hold any water.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on  Twitter @boochanco