Postponing the inevitable

A problem which our government kept on pushing to the back burner has finally reared its ugly head. 

With the 60-year-old Angat Dam in Norzagaray, Bulacan supplying 97 percent of the water needs of Mega Manila’s consumers numbering about 16.5 million,  a government plan to find an alternative source to meet the demands of an ever burgeoning population has been on the drawing boards as far back as a half-century ago during the Marcos administration. 

 And as the number of  water users has increased exponentially since then, aggravated by erratic weather patterns resulting in unpredictable rainfall, this worst-case scenario of insufficient supply was bound to surface much sooner than later.

 Efforts to conserve or optimize the use of available supply cannot prevent a repeat of the pre-1997 water crisis and hide the fact that it was government’s job to build alternative sources to ensure adequate supply for Metro Manilan in the long haul, and government failed.

 Angat Dam’s maximum supply capacity is 4,000 million liters per day. Metro Manila’s private water distributors both rely on whatever water volume from the dam can be supplied to them by the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), which, in turn, is dependent on the volume released to it on a daily basis by the National Water Resources Board (NWRB). 

Both concessionaires also source water from Laguna de Bay and, during emergencies, are allowed by the NWRB to extract water from deep wells.  

Aside from these sources, Manila Water gets its supply from the La Mesa Dam in Novaliches, Quezon City that can hold up to 50.5 million cubic meters. Manila Water has described La Mesa as a buffer or reliability dam that provides it with water during the dry months at a volume good for 19 days of this firm’s supply requirements. 

But the combined volume obtained from all of these extra sources is minimal and could not offset any major supply deficit from Angat Dam. 

Maynilad and Manila Water now serve some 16.5 million consumers combined in the east and west zones of Metro Manila and some parts of Rizal, Laguna, Cavite and Bulacan. Several areas have been experiencing water service disruptions since October as a result of Angat Dam’s below-normal water level. 

Even before the latest warnings of a likely shortage this year, MWSS chief regulator Patrick Ty admitted in 2019  that the government was partly to blame for last summer’s water shortage because of its failure to do what had been planned as early as the 1970s, and that is to build an alternative reservoir to augment Angat Dam’s supply.

Good that President Duterte has finally pursued with the help of official development assistance (ODA) from China what his predecessors had forever put on the back burner, which is to build the Kaliwa Dam as the capital’s alternate water supply reservoir. 

Unfortunately, it will take four to five years to complete the Kaliwa Dam, which the Duterte administration is building to the tune of P12.2 billion, meaning Mega Manila’s water woes would get worse in the next half-decade before it could get any better.

The most disturbing news about the imminent water crisis redux in Mega Manila is the Jan. 8 revelation by MWSS that Angat Dam’s water supply, on the basis of its maximum capacity and those of other smaller sources, can no longer meet the demand of the metropolis between 2020 and 2025. Hence, the need to build the New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project. 

MWSS said the construction of the Kaliwa Dam in Quezon and Rizal is being fast-tracked by the Duterte administration to prevent another water crisis in Metro Manila.

It explained that the water demand analysis used for the planning of Kaliwa Dam showed that the water supply capacity from Angat reservoir and some other smaller sources will not be sufficient to satisfy the water demand of Metro Manila between 2020 and 2025. Taking into account a supply buffer of 15 percent, the Angat supply capacity will be insufficient before 2020. These numbers illustrate the need for a large water supply source. The events since March 2019 have only confirmed said projections, it added.

No less than Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia has expressed concern about a looming water shortage this summer, posing a downside risk to economic growth.

NEDA Undersecretary Adoracion Navarro revealed that a special meeting has been held between NEDA and NWRB officials to take up the water shortage in Angat Dam, given the tail end effects of the El Niño phenomenon.

Navarro said that they will engage agencies to come up with interventions, including possibly curtailing water supply to irrigation activities and to the household sector, adding that it is because of the Angat Dam water level that the expected water level was not reached, not because of the water concessionaires.

NWRB executive director Sevillo David Jr. himself had already raised the possibility of continued water supply interruptions until the summer months because of the below-desirable water level at Angat Dam.

 Angat Dam’s water level peaked at 201.71 meters this week, or far below the ideal yearend level target of 212 meters. And due to the lower-than-expected water volume, David said NWRB would continue managing water releases by not giving the normal allocation. 

As a result, NWRB continued to allocate 40 cubic meters per second or 3,450 million liters per day of raw water  to MWSS for distribution to Manila Water and Maynilad this January. This is below its normal allocation of 46-48 cms. for domestic use. MWSS has been allocated 40 cms of raw water since Sept. 1, 2019. 

David earlier revealed that the water supply interruptions for domestic use coming from Angat Dam are likely to continue to make sure there will be enough water until the next rainy season in June.

In the meantime, Maynilad has come up with measures to mitigate the supply reduction by NRWB and MWSS. Last year, it completed its Putatan 2 Water Treatment Plant as well as the upgrade of its Putatan WTP 1 in Muntinlupa City, both of which will contribute a combined 60 MLD of water. The company is also due to complete next month its non-revenue water or leakage reduction program, which will add another 94 MLD. 

Last December, Maynilad finished reactivating deep wells to supply another 94 MLD.  It has also sought the assistance of MWSS to speed up the issuance of water permits, so it can finish by April its Cavite MTP dam, which will provide another 27 MLD. All these will enable Maynilad to supply its customers with an extra 223 MLD ahead of summer.

On top of these, Maynilad is pursuing more mitigation steps, like deploying 50 mobile water tankers and putting up 14 SWT tanks, along with other activities like cloud seeding and rainwater harvesting.

With its NRW management program, Maynilad has managed to recover 979 MLD daily, a volume large enough to fill 390 Olympic-size pools per day, that can supply potable water to 1.7 million households in the metropolis.

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