The House of Representatives Committee on Metro Manila Development has begun deliberations on various measures aimed at preventing the repeat of another water crisis in the metropolis in preparation for the dry season.
“The combination of a pandemic and a possible water crisis could be disastrous. We do not want to face these problems unprepared. We should ask the important questions as early as now,” Manila Rep. Manuel Luis Lopez said in a congressional hearing.
“Access to water is a right and we no longer want to experience another water crisis that would burden us even more now that we are in a pandemic.”
In discussing the progress of the recommended Water Security Master plan from the last Congress as well as the measures referred to the panel, Lopez asked these questions: “Do we have enough water supply for the hot dry season? Are there rotational water interruptions now and will these be done in the next months to ensure sufficient water supply? What can the government agencies, water concessionaires and the public do to prevent a permanent water crisis or a water crisis in the middle of a pandemic? Will the 2019 water crisis happen again or measures are already in place to address this?”
The committee meeting was in response to Rep. Luis Campos of Makati City’s letter dated January 19, 2021, seeking to explore the viability of Laguna de Bay as another source of potable water for Metro Manila and House Resolution 1191 filed by Deputy Speaker and Valenzuela Rep. Eric Martinez directing Lopez’s panel to look into the current water levels at Angat Dam, La Mesa Dam and other water sources for Metro Manila, including the saving measures by water concessionaires to prevent another water crisis.
“I agree with my two distinguished colleagues who are the proponents of this inquiry, as it is high time we revisited those water sources because our water requirement here in Metro Manila will continue to increase,” Lopez said.
“Now that we seem to have ample water supply, we fear that this may be just temporary but an aftermath of the recent typhoons that elevated the water in Angat Dam to its required or ideal level.”
Since summer is just a few months away, Lopez said, water shortage in times of a pandemic is inevitable.
“As the dry season is fast approaching, there is a chance that we might once again experience such shortage in the supply of water,” he said.
“This we must avoid at all costs, as fighting two simultaneous crises—the lack of water supply and the seemingly never-ending COVID-19 pandemic—will be very difficult for our countrymen and disastrous for our country.”
Lopez said Angat Dam, which has a storage capacity of 850 million cubic meters, supplies around 97 percent of Metro Manila’s water needs, while at the same time being the primary source of irrigation for the rice lands in Bulacan and Pampanga. La Mesa Dam, which has a storage capacity of only 50.5 million cubic meters, supplies the rest.
As a way to mitigate the continuing water shortage problem, Lopez noted that the Committee passed the Rainwater Harvesting Act, which was then approved in Plenary on 25 November 2020 and is now up for the action of the Senate.
“The idea is to take advantage and make the most out of the many typhoons or heavy rain we experience as a tropical country, by collecting and storing rainwater for use as non-potable water source in irrigation, or with the advancement in technology convert this water collected into potable water for household use,” Lopez said.
The potential of the Laguna Lake or Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the Philippines, to be another source of water will also be discussed.
“Although we have read from the position papers submitted by the Laguna Lake Development Authority, Maynilad, and Manila Water about some issues on the utilization of the lake for our requirement, perhaps we can do more research and studies on how we can better utilize this water source,” Lopez said.