Angat water level falling to critical level

MANILA, Philippines - More than 600 barangays in Metro Manila should brace for lower water supply by June as the water reserve in Angat Dam is expected to fall to a critical level, an official of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) said Thursday.

Macra Cruz, senior deputy administrator of the MWSS, told ABS-CBN's Umagang Kay Ganda that the water level in Angat Dam has been going down at a rate of .25 to .30 meters a day.

As of 8 a.m. Wednesday, Angat Dam's water level was at 196.41 meters, and they expect it to fall to a critical level of 180 by May or April.

Angat Dam, a multi-purpose reservoir in Bulacan province, supplies 97% of Metro Manila's raw water requirements and irrigates more than 20,000 hectares of rice land in Bulacan.

If Angat Dam's water level drops to 180 meters, regulators would have to stop allocating water for irrigation. The remaining water would be used solely for Metro Manila's water supply.

Cruz said the volume of water being supplied daily to Metro Manila amounts to 4,000 million liters at an average of 46 cubic meters per second.

She said that because of Angat Dam's unusually low water level, they have been forced to lower the delivery of water to the metropolis to 40 cubic meters per second affecting a few barangays.

"It would become worse by June," she said, adding that they are expecting the water level of Angat Dam to drop to a very critical level of 170 meters.

At 170 meters, Angat Dam would not be able to provide the 97% water requirement of Metro Manila. She said water supply in 584 barangays that fall under the jurisdiction of Maynilad and 50 more barangays in the east sector being supplied by Manila Water will be affected.

All Luzon dams below normal levels

Nathaniel Cruz of the weather bureau PAGASA said water reserves in Magat, San Roque and Pantabangan dams are now at "lower than normal levels."

Cruz said water in the 4 dams all located around Luzon will significantly dry up with the expected early onset of summer this February.

He added that the effects of the El Niño phenomenon have only just begun, and were expected to reach its peak in the coming months.

On Thursday, wildfires that lasted for several hours were reported in Iriga City, Camarines Sur due to the drought.  

Task Force El Niño, headed by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, has been looking for ways of how to mitigate the impact of the El Niño phenomenon. Cruz said cloud seeding operations will continue to prevent more crops from drying up.

The Department of Agriculture has reported that around 5,000 hectares of rice fields have already been damaged in Pangasinan, which, after being devastated by floods due to storms Ondoy and Pepeng last year, has not experienced rain for the past 4 months.

Seaweed farmers in Cebu are also reeling from the effects of the El Niño phenomenon, and at least P43-million worth of farmlands in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao have been damaged.

The province of North Cotabato has also reported a loss of P300-million in rice and corn harvests and is now considering declaring a state of calamity.

The provincial governments of Isabela and Cagayan have already declared a state of calamity. With a report from Zen Hernandez, ABS-CBN News