Without rain, Angat may have only 40-days supply of water

If the rains do not come yet, the Angat Dam reservoir, which provides 97 percent of the water needs of the national capital region, may not have enough water to supply Metro Manila and other provinces after 40 days, the National Power Corporation said Wednesday. Angat Dam is a multi-purpose facility that supplies potable drinking water to Metro Manila and nearby provinces. It also irrigates farmlands in nearby provinces and augments power supply for the Luzon Grid. Napocor president Froilan Tampinco said the water at the dam will not last for 40 days if the rains will not yet come and the water level remains at 158.2 meters above sea level (MASL), way below the critical level of 180 MASL. “Kung walang ulan, remember we are releasing through the low level outlet, kung bumaba yun doon, kahit gusto natin maglabas ng tubig, walang lalabas (If there is no rain, remember that we are releasing through the low level outlet, even if we want to release water, nothing will come out)," Tampinco said. “We need more rainfall but not the kind that would cause destruction. We just need heavy rainfall," he said. The rainfall should be at least 50 milliliters per day for one month to reach the 180 MASL level.
Tampinco said the Angat dam water level is expected to reach 180 MASL by September, noting that the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and the water concessionaires rely on the data from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). He said the decrease of water from the dam is not due to evaporation but more on the lack of inflow. “Hindi nadadagdagan, nagbababawas lang tayo ng tubig (There's no new supply; we are just decreasing the current supply of water)," Tampinco said. Tampinco also clarified that the water shortage is largely due to lack of rainfall and not because of the alleged overspilling from the dam from December 1 to 15 last year. “What we are realizing now as a situation is to our analysis, largely due the weather, which was caused by the lack of proper inflow of water into the dam. It is not because of the releases that we have made," he said. “It is best for the agencies concerned to sit down and talk things over and look for solutions. I don’t think it will be productive for us to pinpoint and blame anybody," Tampinco said. Tampinco said cloud seeding can help increase the water level but it also carries risks. “What we can cite is what experienced recently, and we had an increase of about 0.6 meters. The water level in Angat actually increased, because of the rains that we have been experiencing. Of course, it’s not enough but still significant, and if this trend goes on, we may be able to reach a level when things are comfortable and normal," he said. Napocor said in a separate statement that the agency tried to implement measures to ensure that Angat dam will have enough water, in anticipation of an El Nino period as forecast by the PAGASA, the state weather forecasting agency. Expecting an extended summer as predicted by PAGASA, Napocor maintained the water in the dam above the normal operational level by more than two meters to 212 MASL from 210 MASL as of December 2009. "Our total outflows were only almost 93 million cubic meters (MCM) from December 1 to 15, 2009; which is even lower than the more than 108 MCM – the requirement of both the National Irrigation Administration and MWSS for the same period," Napocor said. It added that all the water releases during that period were within dam operation protocols and regulatory requirements. “There are no releases made for that period that are outside the allocations given by the National Water Resources Board (NWRB). There were no extra releases, contrary to the allegations," Napocor said. "However, dam water release is not an exact science. There will always be discrepancies, because of the nature of water itself. Its not like you can measure the volume as it flows down exactly to the last drop. What is important is that we were able to maintain the level of water released, on the average, as required by the NWRB," Napocor said. –VVP/JV, GMANews.TV