Leyte's 1st District Rep. Martin Romualdez on Tuesday called for the construction of mini-dams to be used in harvesting rainwater as well as the creation of a central authority tasked with water resources management to solve the perennial supply lack of potable water in Metro Manila and other urban areas.
Romualdez said the central authority, to be called Department of Water, would prioritize the creation of sustainable water supply from various sources including rainwater from local catchment basins or mini-dams.
In a related development:
• The Manila Water Company Inc. said it was able to boost its supply for the benefit of its more than 6 million customers in the East Zone concession area by tapping other sources.
An additional source Manila Water has tapped is the Cardona Water Treatment Plant, which draws raw water from Laguna Lake and now produces 61 million liters per day, said Jeric Sevilla, the concessionaire’s head of communications.
The company said it was compelled to tap other sources of water since the National Water Resources Board had reduced the allocation to concessionaires of regulator Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System from Angat Dam.
The treatment plant was able to distribute only 24 mld during its initial stages of operations last March. This means the plant now produces more than 150 percent more water.
At full capacity, the plant can distribute potable water to around 800,000 people.
Romualdez lamented that while many areas in Metro Manila get flooded at the slightest rain, the taps in thousands of households in the metropolis go dry when the dry season comes.
“It is ironic that Metro Manila is submerged in flood waters even at the slightest downpour, yet households do not have a steady supply of water from their faucets,” added Romualdez, president of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD).
“The mean annual rainfall of the Philippines varies from 965 to 4,064 millimeters annually. It is time that we study the possibility of rainwater harvesting as a source of drinking water for our cities and municipalities,” Romualdez said.
Bulacan Rep. Gavini Pancho told Romualdez about the possibility of building mini-dams at the sidelines of Monday’s pre-State of the Nation Address economic and infrastructure forum at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
“I fully subscribe to the proposal of Congressman Apol. Since the creation of Department of Water is a priority of President Duterte, I will ask other leaders of Congress to include the mini-dam concept in the legislative measure,” said Romualdez, a lawyer and president of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa).
Pancho said the construction of mini-dams will not only help address the water supply problem but also solve the flooding problem in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
“Just this Monday, the heavy downpour submerged several areas of Bulacan and parts of Metro Manila yet water level in Angat Dam rose only by a meter. If we can collect those rainwater in small-dams, then we may have a steady supply of water even for agricultural, commercial and industrial use,” Pancho said.
He added building mini-dams is not too expensive since the project only involves stages of walling of existing infrastructure and levelling and deepening of riverbeds.
“It is not going to be too expensive because of the existing infrastructures in place. What is needed is walling to be done in stages,” said Pancho.
“What is important is to put rainwater to productive use and not just allow to go to waste and cause floods,” he added.
Romualdez cited the experience of Singapore where rainwater is collected through a comprehensive network of drains, canals, and rivers and channeled to the reservoirs before it is treated for drinking water.
This makes Singapore, Romualdez said, as one of the few countries in the world to harvest urban stormwater on a large scale for potable consumption.
“Initially, due to budget requirements, we may have to do with the construction of mini-dams or small local catchments for rainwater based on existing infrastructure in various localities,” Romualdez added.
On his proposal to create the Department of Water, Romualdez said that the country’s economic managers have long been pushing for the creation of a central authority on water resource management.
The central authority, Romualdez said, will be tasked to address the suboptimal use and poor management of the country’s water resources.
At the moment, he said, the regulation of water supply and usage is fragmented resulting in problems in supply and usage.
There are now at least 32 agencies involved in the management of water resources.
This structure gave rise to the often miscoordination of plans and spotty implementation of projects in the sector, Romualdez added.
READ: Taps going dry despite rains—Manila Water
READ: Angat drying up; Noy’s inaction hit
READ: MWSS option: Pump out water from Angat Dam