Angat Dam in Norzagaray, Bulacan
MANILA -- The extended downpour which soaked Metro Manila and surrounding areas these past couple of days has managed to raise the level of Angat Dam ever so slightly, but Manila Water management made it clear that the water supply shortage is far from solved.
The water level at Angat Dam has inched up to 160.61 meters as of 4 p.m. on Tuesday, barely above the 160-meter critical level, but this is still significant because the water is finally rising, it was explained.
Manila Water technical spokesperson Donna Perez told the Philippine News Agency that, in the worst cases, the water company is now able to provide at least 8 hours of water service, while in the best cases, customers have running water for longer than 12 hours a day. She said that 99.85 percent of customers in the East Zone franchise area now have notably improved water service.
"We are still only getting 36 cms (cubic meters per second) allocation, so there has been no change in the volume of water we can give," she explained.
Perez, however, explained that the improved water service today is not the result of the very modest rise in Angat Dam's water level. Instead, it came as a result of changes in the way the company allocates available water supply, resulting in more equitable distribution, she added.
As it stands, the current water level is still a far cry from Angat Dam's normal operating level of 180 meters, Perez said. It would take at least two major typhoons coupled with several more days of uninterrupted monsoon rains directly over Angat's location in Norzagaray, Bulacan to bring it back to ideal levels, she added.
In the meantime, Manila Water called on its customers to continue to conserve water until the level of Angat, its main source of supply, rises substantially and the supply situation normalizes. "The real solution to this problem is for us to have an additional source of water aside from Angat," Perez said. (PNA)
