Maynilad consumers still without water

MANILA, Philippines — A majority of customers of Maynilad Water Services Inc. are still grappling with limited to no water supply as the current turbidity level has beaten historical records following the onslaught of Typhoon Ulysses.

In its latest advisory, Maynilad apologized after customers continue to experience longer service interruptions than originally projected.

The heavy rains brought by Ulysses in the last two days caused turbidity in the raw water from Ipo Dam, reaching an unprecedented level of over 6,000 nephelometric units (NTU).

This is way above the previous historical high of 1,800 NTU in 2012. The usual turbidity level is only around 10 to 15 NTU.

Turbidity level refers to the sediment content in the dam’s water and, owing to the continuous rains, turbidity increased as soil eroded from the Ipo watershed into the dam.

This constrained Maynilad to reduce the production of its La Mesa treatment plants to maintain the quality of water that its facilities release to the distribution system.

“It is difficult to answer exactly until when the situation will last. The trend, however, is positive as turbidity has been going down gradually,” Maynilad spokesperson Jennifer Rufo said in a text exchange.

About 70 percent of Maynilad’s customer base or around one million connections are affected.

“Up to now, around 70 percent is still affected. Although turbidity is slowly improving and we started ramping up production, we were not able to fill up our reservoirs overnight,” Rufo said.

The water service interruption schedule earlier announced assumed a reduced production of 900 million liters per day, which is 61 percent lower than the usual 2,300 MLD.

However, given the unprecedented turbidity level, the actual output of Maynilad’s facilities was even lower at only 700 MLD. – Rhodina Villanueva