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Friday, March 29, 2024

MWSS: MM to suffer massive water shortage in ‘24

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Metro Manila will suffer a massive water shortage next year, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) said Tuesday, following a forecast of an El Niño dry spell in the first half of 2024 and increasing demand for water during the hottest months of the year.

The water regulator said the demand from Angat Dam, which supplies over 90 percent of potable water to the National Capital Region, reached 5,680 million liters per day (MLD) in 2020 from 4,395 MLD in 2010. Given this trend, the agency said, Metro Manila will experience a water deficit in 2024.

Former MWSS chairman, now Future Water Asia CEO Ramon Alikpala said the China-backed New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project is the only viable long-term solution to the perennial water supply problems in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

“The threat of another water crisis is serious, and this should be immediately addressed so that Filipinos will not suffer. We cannot afford to face another water crisis. That’s why we must accelerate the development of long-term water resources such as the Kaliwa Dam,” Alikpala said during the Pandesal Forum on Tuesday.

Industry stakeholders fear that any further delay in the project’s completion—on top of climate change, increasing siltation, and unaddressed logistical and infrastructural problems—may cut Metro Manila’s already dwindling supply of water.

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“A new operating dam is much needed because the Angat Dam, which is Metro Manila’s main water source, can no longer keep up with the spiking demand for water. Simultaneously, there is also overpopulation and climate change that call for an immediate solution,” Alikpala added.

MWSS site operations and management department manager Delfin Sespene said if not for the numerous delays of the Kaliwa Dam, Metro Manila residents would already have a sufficient supply of water today.

Despite the commitment of the project contractor to complete the project within 2026 and start commissioning the dam by early 2027, Alikpala pointed out that regulators should also expedite the processes and clearances needed for the full construction of Kaliwa.

Upon commencement of operations, the dam is expected to generate 600 million liters per day (MLD). Its water conveyance tunnel can further produce an estimated 2,400 MLD — all of these can lessen the current burden of the Angat Dam. Based on recent monitoring reports, the dam project was only 21 percent complete as of April 11, 2023.

Angat Dam can currently provide up to 4,000 MLD daily to the National Capital Region — of which 2,400 MLD is allocated to the west zone and the remaining 1,600 MLD to the east zone.

Another pressing issue that needs immediate attention is the problem of leaks along the water line to La Mesa Dam. MWSS deputy administrator Jose Dorado recently said huge volumes of water are being lost at the conveyance system before reaching La Mesa Dam.

As such, water concessionaires Maynilad and Manila Water, and the MWSS are set to conduct “a massive leak repair” at the conveyance system—from Bigti to La Mesa Dam— to reduce losses in the aqueducts and improve raw water flow to the Novaliches Portal.

MWSS manager for field operation Jose Alfredo Escoto, Jr. said the water agency has laid out augmentation measures such as the immediate recovery of non-revenue water of around 30 MLD this summer.

House ways and means committee chairman Rep. Joey Salceda, said government regulators should release a transparent inventory of water sources to see the true picture of actual water supply and demand.

“Unless there is a transparent review of the current supply-demand scenario given the economic implications of a water shortage, stakeholders will remain blind about the current state of our water industry,” Salceda said.

Deputy Speaker and Batangas Rep. Ralph Recto, meanwhile, said President Marcos should lead the upgrading of the RAIN or “Roadmap to Address the Impact of El Nino” so that the weather phenomenon will not seriously harm the country’s food, electricity, and water supply.

RAIN was the comprehensive strategy paper drafted by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) during the 2015-2016 El Nino episode.

The El Nino, Recto added, would hit a sector under the President’s direct jurisdiction—agriculture.

“Scarcity in water leads to scarcity in food. This is not an alarmist statement. It is a fact, because without water, you cannot grow food,” Recto said.

The state weather bureau said there have been seven severe El Nino events since 1980, with the last one lasting from 2015 to 2016 and inflicting $327 million in agricultural losses.

Amid the water woes, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) cut its overall household electricity rate for April (see full story on Business, page B4 – Editors).

In an advisory, Meralco said it slashed its electricity rate by P0.1180 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in April.

This brought the overall rate for a typical household to P11.3168 per kWh from P11.4348 per kWh in March.

The rate reduction translates to a decrease of about P24 in the total bill of a residential customer consuming 200 kWh.

Meralco attributed the lowering of the power rate in April to lower generation charge, which went down to P7.3295 per kWh this month from P7.3790 per kWh in March.

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