MANILA WATER CRISIS AFFECTING

THE GOVERNMENT

Name/Course
Problem: WATER CRISIS
Would you believe that water can be used as a weapon of war? If we deliberately
cut the water supply, the absence of clean water can devastate families, and
bring cities to deterioration – to be specific unsanitary surroundings attracts
disease-carrying pests, dirty water contaminates food preparation, fail hospital
operations, and such can positively lead to adverse effect on public health.
Prolonged period of low rainfall results to drought devastate crops, livestock,
and kill almost all life forms.

Three months ago, water crisis hits Manila and Rizal, and made it on the front
page of every broadsheets and tabloids. The services were suddenly, yet
questionably cut off longer periods, low allocation to almost nothing.

Interpretation: WATER CRISIS HITS MANILA

Reports said that this water crisis was the worst water fiasco in recent history.
Metro Manila is serviced with two private companies for its water needs –
Maynilad and Manila Water.
Maynilad covers the west zone, specifically the cities of Caloocan, Las Piñas,
Muntinlupa, Malabon, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasay, Valenzuela, most of Manila,
and portions of Quezon City and Makati. It also serves particular cities in Cavite.
Meanwhile, the continuously tormented Manila Water is responsible for
providing water to the cities of Marikina, Pasig, Pateros, San Juan, Taguig, most
of Quezon City, and some areas of Manila. It also caters to the water needs of
several areas in Rizal.

Both companies gets their water from the Angat Dam in Norzaragay, Bulacan,
which provides approximately 96% of the entire demand of Metro Manila. The
dam lets out 4,000 million liters per day for both concessionaires. Out of this
figure, 2,400 MLD is allocated for Maynilad, while 1,600 MLD is sent to Manila
Water. When the dry season hits as early as March, services were interrupted.

GOVERNMENT ASKS WHY NO MASS CAMPAIGN

WHERE’S THE MEDIA?

Manila Water and MWSS were roasted at the Congressional hearing during the
height of the crisis in March. Atty. Patrick Ty, the Chief Regulator of the
Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) Regulatory Office was
not so articulate on how to further explain their side as regulator of the said
concessionaires, and even met a lot of controversy on social media. MWSS said
it does not have the power to discipline Manila Water over the mess. If so, who
can crack the whip and hold private companies accountable? President Rodrigo
Duterte met with the MWSS and told them to solve and mitigate the crisis or
else they will all be dismissed from office.
Manila Water’s “palpak” did a great blow to every households, government
facilities, businesses, etc., resulting to most of them skipping classes, and taking
leave from their works to collect and stock-pile water, as much as possible a
stock that would suffice for daily needs. Every family would fall in line with all
their containers and never leave their spot in fear of missing the ration of water.
Imagine messing up with daily routine - no bathing, no washing, if not no cooking
and the water provider still collect fees for “world class” service. From March to
June, it has been the longest period of water shortage to date.

Manila Water said that water shortage was already anticipated due to El Nino
phenomenon, they even insisted they had predicted as early as 2010 that water
supply would be insufficient, given the population boom in the capital. If that’s
so, Manila Water knew all along that this would happen, but the public were not
properly prepared for this very serious predicament, they could have at least
prepared all consumers last year, for example:
(1) Information dissemination – The mass media of all four types;
newspapers, radio, tv, and internet can be of their most compelling role
and be heroes of information dissemination (other than antagonizing the
government and causing public panic). Flyers, infomercials, public
meetings; to advise every household to prepare water tanks, drums, and
other containers to store clean water.

(2) Conserve water – Filipinos are very crafty and these tips would have been
done if they were timely informed of water shortage.
  Check leaks on faucets and water pipes.
 Reduce - Turn off the faucets when brushing, bathing.
 Reduce - Use all-Pinoy “tabo” instead of showers and bidets.
 Reuse. Use laundry water to flush toilets or wash cars, bikes. When
washing rice, the rice-water can be used to water the plants-
nutritious and economical.
(3) Build deep wells, provide enough water tankers.
(4) Shade balls to cover water sources to keep the water from evaporating.

Shade balls are small plastic spheres floated on top of a reservoir for
environmental reasons, including to slow evaporation and prevent sunlight from
causing reactions among chemical compounds present in the water.
(5) Development of additional water treatment facilities.
(6) Long term plan to lessen the effect of water crisis brought by climate change.

Manila Water said, they have advised the southern part of Metro Manila and
Rizal only, but due to its abrupt scarcity of supply and the magnitude of its
impact prompted the government to push Manila Water to mitigate the
shortage of water as well as investigate about the two companies as well
MWSS’s shortcomings to penalize such failure to deliver service.
CARDONA TREATMENT PLANT WAS DELAYED
The Cardona Dam that draw water from the Laguna Lake is now open. The said
dam was supposedly have started operating in December 2018. The controversy
is that Cardona was allegedly postponed by MWSS in favor of prioritizing their
project the Kaliwa Dam in Sierra Madre, Quezon. The latter is also on fire when
the Indigenous People of Sierra Madre condemned the project with a silent
protest at the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP)

Meanwhile in the congressional hearing, it seemed Manila Water and MWSS has
been pinpointing each other on its delay.
Manila Water also explains to the Congress, the Angat can no longer keep up
with the demand, as it has gone up to an average of 1,740 MLD, higher than the
company’s Angat Dam allocation of 1,600 MLD. The discrepancy is being
supplied by water from the La Mesa Dam in Quezon City. Manila Water also said
Angat Dam’s water level is normal at over 200 meters, La Mesa dam’s level was
already critical because of its very low water level, the water can no longer reach
the gates of the aqueducts.
As for mitigation, Ayala’s Manila Water deployed floating pumps to draw water
out from the dam, but was never enough to meet the demand, it still have to
implement longer service interruption to be able to collect and produce the
supply. It scheduled water tanks to deliver water rations to severely affected
communities, but still, the ration does not suffice the extended queue of
parched, distressed consumers.
 GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE SECTORS TEAM UP
FOR SOLUTIONS.

Interventions from government and with the help of Maynilad, Water services
have gotten a little bit better recently, some areas has resumed their water
supply except for some barangays. Local government unit, the Bureau of Fire
Protection in particular, continuously deliver rations of water to barangays in
need.
The government drafted an executive order which upgrades the National Water
Resources Board (NWRB) to a body under the Office of the President for “policy,
direction-setting, and the integration of all government efforts pertaining to
water.”
While the government is trying to come up with long-term solutions, medium-
term reinforcements were carried out and resulted in better water services.
MWSS ordered the National Water Resources Board to activate 101 deep wells
to supply an additional 101 MLD. Maynilad shared an initial 20 MLD through a
cross border flow to augment the water supply needs of Manila Water. The
Pangilinan-led concessionaire also provided an additional 10 MLD of their raw
water allocation from Angat Dam. Manila Water’s new water facility in Cardona,
Rizal is now operational, provided 24 MLD this March and a total of 50 MLD last
April. The facility will eventually provide a total of 100 MLD. San Miguel
Corporation’s Bulacan Bulk Water also stepped in by providing potable water
from its untapped 140 MLD through trucks and in coordination with local
government units and MWSS.

REBATES FOR AFFECTED CONSUMERS

The government made sure that MWSS will push Manila Water to give rebates
to severely affected consumers. So in May 2019, around 140,000 Manila Water
customers will receive a rebate this June. They will receive P2,197.94 each, said
MWSS chief regulator Patrick Ty. Severely affected residents are identified as
those who experienced seven days with no supply for 24 hours from March 6 to
March 31. Residential connections that do not fall under the "severely affected"
category are also entitled to a 10-cubic meter rebate equivalent to P153.93.
Manila Water was ordered to pay a total of P1.13 billion in penalties after a
supply shortage affected tens and thousands of residents in Metro Manila's east
zone.

CONCLUSION
The government and water concessionaires must assure the public that a similar
scenario does not recur in the future through intensified preparations. A water
shortage that affecting thousands of people in the Philippines for over three
months revealed management issues, and threatened the health and economy
if dry season persisted to another month. The only way to solve this problem is
to find more places to draw water to meet the demands of the growing
population in Manila. As for now, everyone’s wish is a continuous monsoon to
fill up the Angat Dam, and while wishing for the heavy rains to come, the
government and the water companies nonetheless continues to deliver
mitigation measures – double the water tankers, build more water pumps, and
advice all consumers to conserve water while the crisis is still going on.