By R. G. Antonet Go/PNA
ZAMBOANGA CITY — The Zamboanga City Water District (ZCWD) will implement water rationing if this city continues to experience a dry spell.
“We are monitoring the situation if the trend continuous, then we might resort to rationing of water,” Edgar Baños, ZCWD information officer, on Thursday told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
Baños disclosed that the water level at the ZCWD diversion dam is measured at 74.06 meters, which is lower by .14 meters than the normal level of 74.20 meters.
However, he said the rationing will not be as bad as that in 2016 since the ZCWD is being backed now by the Prime Water.
The ZCWD imposed a 12-hour water rationing daily in the first two weeks of January 2016 and was shortened to eight hours a day starting January 27 of the same year due to prolonged dry spell.
Baños said the ZCWD is currently supplying water to the east coast barangays and downtown areas as the Prime Water, which started operation in 2017, caters to the west coast villages.
He said the ZCWD has some 60,000 water concessioners and serving 61 of 98 barangays.
He said they have activated the 21 pumping stations and boost delivery through water tankers to barangays on high elevation areas.
He said they have also heightened the campaign on pipe leakage detection and illegal connections, which is the source of water wastage.