Maynilad warns shortage to persist as it boosts rationing in NCR, Cavite
Maynilad Water Services Inc. over the weekend warned its customers in Metro Manila and Cavite to brace for longer water interruptions that can last from 14 to 19 hours daily.
While it assured its customers that the possibility of 19 hours of dry faucets is a “worst-case scenario,” Maynilad said it will step up and boost rationing to some 20,000 connections in its service area as a stopgap measure.
The water shortage will persist unless the National Water Regulatory Board (NWRB) grants Maynilad’s petition to increase its water allocation from the dams to 52 cubic meters per second (CMS), the firm’s officials said over the weekend.
“We’ve received information that the NWRB will maintain the current allocation level at 50 CMS, which is not enough to serve the demand of consumers this summer season. These areas are those that are quite far from the source and mostly located on elevated areas,” Engr. Zmel Grabillo, Manila Business Area Head for Maynilad, said Sunday.
“These are hard to reach areas and have been experiencing difficulties even before the water interruption schedule was announced,” Grabillo added in a TeleRadyo interview.
Maynilad currently serves over 9 million people in the cities of Caloocan, Las Piñas, Malabon, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasay, and Valenzuela, along with most of the City of Manila and portions of Quezon City and Makati west of the Metro Manila Skyway, as well as Cavite.
An ABS-CBN report said about 73 percent of Maynilad customers would be affected by the long water interruptions, but it could not be verified with company officials as of press time.
Last Wednesday, Maynilad said it has begun daily service interruptionsto preserve the remaining supply of water in the Angat-Ipo system, as there will be less rainfall to replenish the dams because of the El Niño dry weather spell.
The firm admitted there is no definite timeline when full or improved water services will be restored in the areas experiencing nearly the whole day without running water.
The prolonged water interruption in selected areas may even persistthrough the entire summer since there is a probability that waterlevel from the source, Angat Dam, may further decline owing to lack ofrain.
The water firm said it is continuously cooperating with local government units for the water rationing schedule and is keeping tabs of the window when water is flowing to make sure that residents in affected areas are urged to stock up on water.
Among the measures Maynilad is enforcing include the reactivation of deep wells and commissioning of modular treatment plants to produce more water from alternate sources, and the continued repair of pipe leaks and replacement of old pipelines to recover more water for distribution.
The company is also making available around 100 mobile water tankers for deployment, as needed.
It has installed 83 stationary water tanks (SWT) in strategic locations and is purchasing more SWTs for additional water storage.
Maynilad is also willing to scale up the deployment of more tankers in areas with longer interruptions.
The NWRB has allowed Maynilad access to 50 CMS water until April 15 this year, but what comes next is still uncertain – whether the agency will continue to supply the same volume or further cut availability of raw water as summer intensifies.
“At 50 CMS, we expect that the volume of raw water flowing to the Novaliches Portal in Quezon City will still be at reduced levels. Given this, the current daily water service interruptions will remain in place, but the interruption schedules to be implemented starting April 1, 2023, have been adjusted to account for the full suspension of the cross-portal sharing arrangement between Maynilad and Manila Water,” the company said earlier.
The company is also looking at possible intervention such as cloud seeding activities that the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage System (MWSS) may undertake.
Even before the service interruptions, Maynilad has been augmenting supplies through a “cross-portal” arrangement with Manila Water, because less water has been reaching the Novaliches Portal in Quezon City.
However, the declining water elevation at La Mesa Dam has forced Manila Water to gradually suspend the cross-portal sharing.
This will mean less supply for Maynilad to distribute, resulting inlonger daily service interruption schedules starting April 1.
With a higher raw water allocation, Manila Water would be more comfortable with sustaining the cross-portal sharing arrangement with Maynilad.
“It would also increase the volume of raw water that reachesMaynilad’s treatment plants, enabling us to suspend the daily service interruptions that are currently in place,” the company said.
Maynilad is also taking other measures to help mitigate the supply shortage, including “massive leak repair activities at the conveyance system — from Bigti to La Mesa Dam—to arrest losses in the aqueducts and improve raw water flow to the Novaliches portal.”