The Philippine Online Chronicles

Dam officials have notified the public of the possibility of lingering water shortages in the next months, while the government warned the public of looming power outages should the power firms fail to cope up with the rising energy demands.

The water level in the reservoir located at Norzagaray, Bulacan continues to drop, according to Angat River Hydroelectric Power Plant (Arhepp) general manager Rodolfo German.

German warned Monday that the water shortage experienced last year could be repeated, as the dam elevation is currently at 203.23 meters above sea level (masl), some six to 10 meters below its normal water level.

Inquirer says that the dam official considers the current elevation as critical, for it was lower than the recorded level in the same period last year.

Critical level

“This is critical because this elevation is lower than the water level in January 2010... The reservoir should have been filled up before the year ended because we do not expect heavy rains as we approach summer,” German said.

According to German, it is possible that the reservoir will continue to see a decrease in water elevation, although the water shortage may be ended if rains come before May.

Angat Dam supplies 97 percent of the water requirement of Metro Manila, and provides irrigation to farmlands in the Central Luzon provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga.

On January 1, the National Water Resources Board decreased the dam's water allocation to the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) from 41 cubic meters per second to 37 cubic meters per second.

MWSS water concessionaires Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Co. Inc. supplies water to Metro Manila and some parts of neighboring Cavite and Rizal provinces, respectively.

During the last year's third quarter, Angat reservoir dropped to 180 masl. Dam officials were forced to stop supplying irrigation water to Bulacan and Pampanga, and to ration supply in the metro.

In July last year, the reservoir was seen at its lowest point of 157 to 158 masl.

Power outages

Meanwhile, the Energy department said that they have already asked the power-generating firms to conduct early preventive maintenance work to avoid service interruptions in summer.

Department of Energy (DoE) secretary Jose Rene Almendras warned that Luzon could experience rotating three-hour blackouts if the power demand surges to a peak of 7,900 megawatts and if power plants break down.

“If peak demand [reaches 7,900 megawatts], calculations show we are going to be 300 megawatts short,” Almendras said, adding that this would mean rotating outages of three hours a day.

The government said that Luzon will need about 500 megawatts of extra power as the economy is projected to grow by 7 to 8 percent, according to Manila Standard Today.

To avoid blackouts, Almendras said that all the plants must be kept running and that new power plants should be built to augment the rising power demands.

If outages do occur, Metro Manila is expected to receive the heaviest impact.

Manila Bulletin, however, said that the national government denied that there will be no power outages to occur in the metro during the summer, saying that these would occur only “if some conditions would arise.”

Meanwhile, dam authorities exhort residents of Metro Manila to conserve water to lessen the impact of water shortage.