Maynilad spending P2B on mitigating measures amid looming water crisis

West zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services Inc. on Wednesday said it is spending about P2 billion on five mitigating measures to ease the impact of rotational service interruptions in its concession area amid the decline of supply in Angat Dam.

"It's definitely more than P2 billion for all five [measures]," Maynilad president and CEO Ramoncito Fernandez said in a press conference in Makati City on Wednesday.

The decline of water level at Angat Dam below its normal opeating level of 210 meters and nearing a minimum operating level of 180 meters resulted in the reduction of raw water allocation to Maynilad and Manila Water to 40 cubic meters per second (cms) from the regular allocation of 46 cms.

The reduced allocation compelled the water concessionaires to implement rotational water service interruptions.

It has resulted in a supply deficit for Maynilad of 230 million liters per day (mld).

"Angat water level is at 188.34 meters still about 21 meters below our target year-end of 210 meters, which will enable us to have a good supply during summer," Fernandez said.

Maynilad's five measures are:

• increasing the capacity of Putatan 2 water treatment plant by 50 mld augmenting it to 150 mld by October;
• optimizing Putatan 1 by additional 10 mld to make its total 160 mld;
• reactivating deep wells with targeted capacity of 52 mld by December (so far 14 mld has been achieved);
• reducing non-revenue water or leakage by 94 mld by February 2020 (40 mld is already achieved); and
• having Cavite Dams mobile treatment plants add 27 mld by April 2020.

The five measures will bring about a total of 233 mld to ease the deficit brought by the lower Angat level, he company said.

Of the targeted 233 mld, it added, 100 mld has so far been achieved from the mitigating measures.

The Angat reservoir accounts for about 90% of Metro Manila’s raw water requirement through the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System—the government’s regulatory arm in charge of the concessionaires Maynilad and Manila Water.

Angat also irrigates an estimated 28,000 hectares of farmland in the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga. — BM, GMA News