MWSS cites reasons for water shortage in Metro Manila East Zone

March 13, 2019

Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) blamed on Wednesday the higher demand, interruption of the operation of Cardona water treatment plant and the lack of rain as the causes of the water shortage in areas being serviced by private concessionaire Manila Water Company Inc.

MWSS chief regulator Atty. Patrick Lester Ty said the water demand in the East Zone of Metro Manila has increased to 1,750 million liters per day.

“(It’s) because of the increase demand. Basically, right now the allocation of Manila Water is 1600 million liters per day, their demand is at 1750 mld. Because of that deficiency, that caused the problem,” Ty told reporters.

Asked if they have not seen this problem from happening, Ty said it was projected as part of the business plan.

“That’s why the Cardona water treatment plant in Laguna Lake was supposed to address that portion and they have a buffer which is La Mesa Dam. La Mesa dam was supposed to breach any gap. Unfortunately, because of the weather, there was no rain so it led to the depletion of La Mesa which causes all these problems,” he explained.

In a Facebook post, Ty said aside from the increasing population they need a new water source which would address the water shortage.

“Since it hasn’t been raining, their reserve is not getting replenished. This is the reason we have a shortage in Manila water side. We need a new water source and we need it soon,” he said.

The chief regulator said Manila Water was able to reduce its non-revenue water from 60 percent to 12 percent, which has addressed the increasing population in the east side of Metro Manila.

Mandaluyong City and Pasig City are the main areas experiencing water shortage since last week.

“The population keeps increasing and they can’t reduce it below 12 percent anymore,” Ty said, adding the international standard for non-revenue water is 20 percent.

“Manila Water has been warning that there will be a looming water shortage if we don’t have a new water source soon, they announced it again just last year,” he added.

He said Metro Manila has no new water source because of oppositions to Kaliwa Dam, Laiban Dam and other dam projects.

In a press conference, MWSS administrator Reynaldo Velasco said the government has short-term and long-term plans to address the water shortage in Metro Manila.

The MWSS plan includes the use of Wawa Dam, Kaliwa Dam, Bayabas Dam, Laguna Lake and Angat-Norzagaray area which could also be sources of water aside from Angat Dam.

“Master plan is for water concessionaires to have an independent water source each,” said Velasco.

For his part, Manila Waters President Ferdinand Dela Cruz said there would still be areas that would experience water low pressure, which could result to “more aggressive rotational interruption”.

Dela Cruz said 35 barangays are still experiencing water shortage.

“We are trying to spread the supply that’s why most or a number of areas still continue to suffer low pressure. It’s really to distribute the limited water to as many people as possible. And we continue to add tankers, we now have about 50,” he explained.

“We also need to make sure that our 20 major reservoirs get refilled because if we do not refill these reservoirs, then the problem will snowball,” said Dela Cruz.

He said he does not want to give people false expectations but assured them of providing support for affected customers by working on additional supply.

“By end of March, we will have about 50 million liters per day from Cardona plant and around August another 50 million liter per day,” he said.

Manila Water urged everyone to conserve water to make sure that more people would share whatever is available. Ella Dionisio/DMS