MORE water from deep wells is expected to boost the supply of water for the East Zone concession area, which has been experiencing severe water-service interruptions since March 6.
While Manila Water Company Inc. said eight to 12 hours water service at ground floor level is now reaching about 97 percent of the company’s customers, at least eight barangays are still dependent on supply coming from static tankers and mobile tankers because of an estimated supply shortage of at least 100 million liters per day (MLD).
On Thursday, Manila Water announced that it started operating an additional 13 deep wells in its concession area. As of March 27, 2019, the company said in a statement that more than 15 MLD has been drawn from the deep wells.
The operation of these deep wells is seen to bring more water supply in the coming months.
Before the activation of the new deep wells, Manila Water was able to source more than 9 million liters per day from five deep wells located in Curayao, Rodriguez.
It is expected that at least 30 million liters per day from more deep wells will be able to augment supply by the end of March.
The current demand for Manila Water customers is about 1,750 MLD. This is short of about 100 to 150 million liters per day compared to the available supply from its allocation of 1,600 MLD coming from Angat Dam.
To narrow the supply deficit, various sources have been identified to augment supply. Aside from the deep wells, additional supply is now coming from the Cardona Water Treatment Plant, which now delivers 23 million liters per day and from the cross-border flows coming from Maynilad, which now provides 11 million liters per day and will progressively increase up to 50 million liters per day by June.
Last week, the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) issued temporary water permits for the reopening and operation of close to 100 deep wells within the East Zone concession area.
Temporary permits
The DENR and the NWRB earlier stopped issuing permits for the operation of deep wells in its bid to conserve precious groundwater sources and prevent the adverse effects of excessive groundwater use, such as land subsidence and, in the case of coastal areas, saltwater intrusion that can contaminate the country’s aquifers.
The temporary water permits are contained in an order issued by the NWRB on March 15 through NWRB Executive Director Sevillo David Jr.
The permits will cover a four-month period from March 15 to July 15, 2019.
The 91 deep wells can produce more than 130 MLD, but DENR Undersecretary Benny D. Antiporda earlier said the agency has capped the extraction to a maximum of 30 MLD so as to avoid the adverse impact of excessive groundwater use.
David had earlier said that the operation of the deep wells “shall be subject to control and strict monitoring of the NWRB.”
Foremost in the conditions is for MWSS to ensure the conformity of the deep wells’ water quality with the Philippines National Standards for Drinking Water (PNSDW) of the Department of Health (DOH), the order stated.
The granting of the permits to allow the operation of deep wells went through “a careful evaluation and assessment of the attending circumstances” brought about by the “prolonged water-service interruptions that [have] caused inconvenience if not suffering to the residents.”
Ordered reopened for operation, “in order to immediately address these pressing water issues,” are the deep wells in Quezon City covering 16 deep wells with a combined yield of 22.91 MLD, Makati with 16 deep wells at 16.1 MLD, Taytay (15 wells with 23.72 MLD), Antipolo (17 wells with 23 MLD), Montalban (six wells with 12.31 MLD); Rodriguez (six wells with 17.71 MLD); San Mateo (four wells with 4.41 MLD); Taguig (seven wells with 13.89 MLD); Mandaluyong (two wells with 1.18 MLD); and Pasig (two wells with 1.55 MLD).
Image credits: Nonie Reyes