El Niño has finally caught up with Angat Dam. Metro Manila's main water source is fast being depleted after months of no rainfall, and is nearing the lowest level of 157.56 meters recorded in 2010.
Angat Dam's declining water level is serious. It supplies 96 percent of the water requirements of the capital region, aside from providing electricity and irrigation to farmlands in nearby provinces. And the solution is nowhere near—the dam will need more storms to dump rain into the reservoir.
Angat Dam's receding water level has already prompted Manila Water Co. Inc. and Maynilad Water Services Inc., Metro Manila’s major water concessionaires, to file a “notice of force majeure” to the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System. This simply means the concessionaires could not be blamed for not fulfilling their contractual obligations to the MWSS because of factors beyond their control—in this case Angat Dam's dwindling water stock.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration says Angat Dam will need over 300 millimeters of rainfall to normalize its water level. Pagasa hydrologist Sonia Serrano explains Metro Manila, in comparison, experiences about 140mm of rainfall on average every August.
Water authorities should now stop relying solely on Angat Dam as the major water source of Metro Manila. The effects of El Niño, for one, is expected to affect the Philippines until August. The weather phenomenon will likely persist until the first quarter of 2020 and it is likely that Angat Dam, a multi-purpose facility, will not adequately meet the water requirements of Metro Manila consumers. The dam also generates 246 megawatts of electricity and irrigates about 28,000 hectares of farmland in Bulacan and Pampanga.
The MWSS by now should have identified a new source of raw water after the crisis started in April this year. The Wawa Dam in Rodriguez, Rizal can provide the short-term solution to the water shortage in the metropolis. The MWSS should also go over the other proposals of the private sector in providing the medium- and long-term answers to the current water crisis.