THE water distribution utility serving Metro Cebu assured its customers that there is enough water for its 2 million residents during the expected long dry spell and the supply will last until the scheduled rainy season in June.
Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) production and distribution chief Genaro Mejor said there is no need for water rationing in their franchise area as of yet. However, he explained there will be lesser delivery hours and lower pressure in some districts as the dry spell takes its effect on the supply.
“We have anticipated the problem and, thankfully, we were able to augment the supply just before the dry spell,” Mejor said.
But he added that instead of a daily average of 22.5 hours of water for its franchise areas, they estimate the number will go down to 21 hours per day as the water supply needs to be distributed to more customers.
The Buhisan Dam in Cebu City already has signs of drying up, but Mejor said the facility, built in the early 1900s, supplies just a small portion of the water supply of the metropolis. Most of the supply of MCWD is still taken from underground wells.
The MCWD’s biggest water well field in Jaclupan in Talisay City cut production by more than half from an average of 45,000 cubic meters a day to just 18,000 cubic meters in March. MCWD was able to open more wells and commissioned several private bulk-water suppliers to augment the supply.
Early this year MCWD added more than 4,500 cubic meters of supply from several wells in the south district of the city and bulk-water suppliers with injection areas in the north.
Mejor said more wells will be opened in the summer, while existing bulk-water suppliers said they can increase their volume by up to 25 percent.
But while the hot summer months will not pose problems for existing MCWD consumers, the water district itself admits they are facing bigger long-term problems. The utility admits to servicing only 55 percent of its service area either because of shortage of supply or lack of infrastructure to bring water to more people.
MCWD serves more than 130,000 customers in Metro Cebu and produces some 160,000 cubic meters of water daily, but this still falls short to fulfill the pent-up demand—potential customers who have pending applications for water lines, but could not be served.
“Our priority is to provide the best service to our existing customers,” Genaro said.
With Cebu not having enough big bodies of inland water like lakes and rivers, most of Metro Cebu’s water is sourced from underground wells. Pollution and overextraction, however, forced MCWD to close some of the wells as contaminants and sea water have found their way into the water sources.
MCWD recently signed a huge 20,000-cubic-meter bulk-water supply deal with the city of Danao in the north, which should secure the water supply in the city for the next several years.
Source: The Business Mirror
