La Mesa Water level hits five-year low

(May 2018)

Customers of Manila Water Co. Inc. should brace for service interruptions in
the coming days after supply at La Mesa Dam in Quezon City dropped to a critical
level amid high demand. Water level at La Mesa Dam has hit a five-year low at
72.51 meters, way below the maintaining level of 78 to 79 meters.
This is largely because the supply that we are getting from Angat Dam (in
Bulacan) is also low compared to the increasing demand right now. La Mesa is
supposed to be our buffer but since we need more, we are already getting our
supply there.
Since there is greater demand compared to recent years. There are more
constructions and structures. Water interruptions may initially affect the East La
Mesa treatment plant, which covers consumers from the elevated portions of
Marikina, Rodriguez and San Mateo in Rizal or an estimated 16,000 households.
Once water level hits 69 meters, interruptions may happen at certain times of the
day. Reduced pressure is being done late at night until midnight.
According to Manila Water Spokesperson Jeric Sevilla that since they still
want to provide 24/7, they decided to just reduce the pressure. Sevilla added that
this is expected to continue in the next days, and worse, for the rest of the month
as the state weather bureau has yet to announce the start of the rainy season.
The only way to refill the dam is through rainfall. They are doing
contingency measures like supply adjustment even if it means pressure reduction
and readying the deep wells.
Maynilad corporate communications head Jennifer Rufo stated that even if
La Mesa Dam is Manila Water’s reservoir, customers of west zone concessionaire
Maynilad Services Inc. might also be affected in the succeeding days. Since both
concessionaires get their raw water from the Angat and Ipo dams, and Manila
Water’s drawdown from Ipo Dam increases because of the critical level of its La
Mesa Dam, then Maynilad is affected.
In Maynilad’s case, since they are not getting the proper raw water
allocation, they cannot fill up our Bagbag reservoir (in Quezon City) to the desired
level. Hence, they have been implementing off-peak low water pressure to no
water supply schedules in some areas. Depending on how much water we are
able to store at Bagbag reservoir for the day, we can either suspend or implement
the low pressure to no water scenarios.

Water shortage looms in 2021, Manila Water warns

(August 2018)

The government’s non-approval of a P13-billion water treatment plant in

Laguna Lake may result in water shortage in Metro Manila by 2021.

Manila Water chief operating officer Geodino Carpio said the Metropolitan
Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) is not keen on approving the
company’s proposed Laguna Lake water supply system project because it is
“expensive.” Manila Water said consumers should brace for water interruptions
because supply from the current water sources would no longer be enough to
meet demand in the next three years.

According to Manila Water chief operating officer Geodino Carpio that since
March 2017, they have been trying to get it approved. If not, the high areas of
Montalban, San Mateo, Marikina, and other parts of Metro Manila may lose water
supply, not permanently, but there will be outages. They would have to do
rotational supply and the pressure will be decreased. And the danger of not
having 24/7 water supply is that surface water may infiltrate the pipes and may
introduce contaminants into the water. And chlorine may not be strong enough to
disinfect infiltration so health issues may occur.

The MWSS argued that the Laguna Lake project, which will have a capacity
of 250 million liters per day (MLD), is way expensive than the government’s
flagship P12.2-billion Kaliwa Dam project that could treat 600 MLD.

However, Carpio maintained that MWSS is not seeing the whole picture as
the Laguna Lake project is already the complete system, while the P12.2 billion
Kaliwa Dam project will only consist of the dam and the transmission lines. He
said the Kaliwa Dam would actually cost up to P44 billion, including the
distribution lines from Manila Water and the other concessionaire, Maynilad Water
Services Inc. It would also translate to higher cost to consumers of up to P73 per
cubic meter compared to the P52 per cubic meter of the Laguna Lake project.
The Laguna Lake project aims to complement the nearly completed Rizal
Province water supply improvement project in Cardona in Rizal which has a
capacity of 100 MLD. The Kaliwa project, which is targeted for completion by
2023, may already be too late to ensure stable water supply.
However. Kaliwa has not even been awarded yet. That is why they are
proposing that they be allowed to do the Laguna Lake project because if
something happens to the Angat dam, where we get 96 percent of our water, we
will need another source.

Some of the purposes that Water may be appropriated is stated in Article 10

of PD 1067 are the following:

(a) Domestic

(b) Municipal

Domestic is the utilization of water for drinking, washing, bathing, cooking

or other household needs, home gardens, and watering of lawns or domestic
animals while Municipal is the utilization of water for supplying the water
requirements of the community.
Article 22 of PD 1067 further provides that Between two or more
appropriators of water from the same sources of supply, priority in time of
appropriation shall be given the better right, except that in times of emergency
the use of water for domestic and municipal purposes shall have a better right
over all other uses; provided, that where water shortage is recurrent and the
appropriator for municipal use has a lower priority in time of appropriation, then it
shall be his duty to find an alternative source of supply in accordance with
conditions prescribed by the Council.

Therefore, if there is a water shortage and the use of water is for domestic
and municipal purposes it shall have a better right over all other uses because it
is for benefit of many.
Water Pollution

The Philippines is a developing country that is also undergoing rapid

urbanization and industrialization. Out of more than one hundred million Filipinos,
nine million rely on unsafe water supplies. In fact, water pollution in the
Philippines and a lack of proper sewage kills 55 people every day.
Katrina Arianne Ebora, part of UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
program in the Philippines, notes that access to adequate sanitation facilities is a
problem for more than 30 million Filipinos.

This portion of the population is forced to spend considerable time, effort

and energy in procuring water. Families without a sanitary toilet often face the
embarrassment of venturing outside to relieve themselves. Some resort to asking
their neighbors to utilize their sanitary toilet facilities.

Environmental group Greenpeace has previously warned that Filipinos in key

agricultural areas are drinking water contaminated with nitrates. After conducting
a study on important farming areas, Greenpeace warned that nitrate levels were
alarmingly above the safety limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The group also noted that “drinking water from 30 percent of all groundwater
wells sampled in [the Philippines and Thailand] showed nitrates levels above the
WHO safety limit of 50 mg l-1 of nitrate.”
Article 75 of PD 1067 provides that no person shall, without prior
permission from the National Pollution Control Commission, build any works that
may produce dangerous or noxious substances or perform any act which may
result in the introduction of sewage, industrial waste, or any pollutant into any
source of water supply. Water pollution is the impairment of the quality of water
beyond a certain standard. – This standard may vary according to the use of the
water and shall be set by the National Pollution Control Commission.

In order to prevent water pollution and the threat to life of every person, any
one of build any work that may create dangerous substances shall follow the
standard set by the National Pollution Control Commission.