By Ma. Cristina Arayata/PNA
MANILA — Residents from Makati and Mandaluyong are complaining about the uncertainty of water supply in their areas.
Aleili Ariola, who rents a condo unit in Mandaluyong, has been experiencing water shortage for almost a week now.
“There would only be times when there’s water, but usually it’s dirty,” she told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
Ariola said this is the first time she experienced water crisis, and has not experienced this back in her hometown.
There’s no notice until when this water shortage would last, she added.
“People have panicked. Residents have bought drums, pails, even large trash cans. Our body clocks were also affected because we would take a bath only when there’s water,” Ariola lamented.
She continued that she couldn’t do the laundry and also noticed that the laundry shops in their area are greatly affected.
“I live in a condo, but I think the people outside experience worse because they only have water supply for about an hour. They get ration from firemen at dawn,” she said.
Jo-Anne Arataquio of Makati has the same dilemma.
“As per the water company, it (water shortage) will be an everyday thing. But they did not give us a concrete timeline, they did not tell us until when this would happen,” she remarked.
“They just said the rotating water interruption will be from March 13 onwards,” she added.
Arataquio recalled her family had to put water into drums and pails before March 13.
“There’s not even a single drop (of water),” said Pao Oga on Friday.
A resident of Makati, Oga said today is the first day of water interruption in their area (Barangay Rizal).
It is also his first time to experience water interruption since he came here for work.
“It quite bothers me that there’s no definite date or dates given to us regarding this water shortage. They just told us there would be no water from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” he stressed.
Ariola, Arataquio and Oga are all clients of Manila Water, which serves the eastern part of Metro Manila.
Manila Water said the current water supply it can receive from Angat Dam is 1,400 million liters per day (MLD) while the demand is now at 1,650 MLD.
Apparently, Manila Water claimed that the demand outpaced the current supply, that it had to use its reserve usually allotted for El Nino.
“El Nino exacerbated the situation,” Manila Water reportedly said.
Senior weather specialist Rosy Abastillas told the PNA that El Nino is still weak.
“El Nino varies. Sometimes it starts as weak and ends as weak. Other times it becomes moderate to severe then back to being weak,” she said, adding that weather specialists monitor El Nino on a weekly and monthly basis.
Abastillas declined to confirm nor deny whether El Nino has greatly contributed to the water shortage that Metro Manila residents have been experiencing.
“What we have been monitoring now in relation to El Nino is the low chances of rainfall in some areas. We have identified some areas that could potentially experience dry spell because of low chances of rainfall,” she remarked.
Abastillas added that the forecast for the possibility of a dry spell is until June.
Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday asked the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) to demand from water service companies to release water from Angat Dam good for 150 days, to supply water in the affected areas and distribute sufficient water to the residents.
