Maynilad Tour | Best practices in water resource conservation and Solutions for Water Shortage

Last February 18, Maynilad Water Services, Inc. (Maynilad) invited handpicked mommy bloggers for a tour of its La Mesa Water Treatment Plants, as well as the Angat Dam and Ipo Dam in Bulacan. During the tour, I learned a lot about Metro Manila Raw Water Source and its facilities, flow of water from the source, sharing among concessionaires, best practices in water resource conservation, etc.

Maynilad is the largest private water concessionaire in the Philippines in terms of customer base. It is a concessionaire of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) for the West Zone of the Greater Manila Area. About 91% of Maynilad’s raw water supply comes from Angat Dam, which is located in Norzagaray, Bulacan. The remaining 9% comes from Laguna Lake. They have 2 treatment plants in La Mesa Compound, Quezon City, and another 2 in Putatan, Muntinlupa. They have 1.4 million service connections (9.7 million people).

I learned during this trip that over-reliance on a single major raw water source is one of the major concerns in the apparent water crisis and rotational water interruptions. Maynilad discussed how rotational water service interruptions work, and the reason why sometimes the water service resumption is delayed.

The water level in Ipo Dam has been slowly decreasing due to minimal runoffs from Ipo watershed. Hence, it can no longer augment the deficit brought on by the maintained reduced raw water allocation from Angat Dam. Even the rain which fell in the watershed areas during the recent wet season was not enough to fill the dams. 

 Unfortunately, Metro Manila remains at risk of a water shortage come summer months. It is more of a supply and demand problem. Higher demand plus reduced raw water supply means the available water is not enough for the demand of their customers.  Historically, consumer demand for water increases during the summer months while rainfall is scarce given the summer season.

This might force the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) to further reduce raw water allocation for the MWSS and its concessionaires. Such reduction would mean longer daily rotational water service interruptions for customers.

The duration of service interruptions depends on the actual available supply. Maynilad may shorten the scheduled service interruption in affected areas, depending on the actual daily volume of water it receives from Angat and Ipo Dams. 

To those customers wondering why the duration of rotational service interruption varies per area, this is mainly due to the hydraulic configuration of the pipelines. This means that some areas will experience longer or shorter service interruptions owing to their location. For example, the higher the location is, the longer the interruption will be.

These are some of the factors that cause a delay in supply resumption following a service interruption:

Ø  The volume of withdrawal from the pipelines as customers start to get water

Ø  The topography of an area (low-lying areas feel the supply resumption earlier than those in highly elevated areas). Gravity is a factor in their water supply system so those in higher areas experience longer service interruptions because it takes time for pressure to build up in pipelines before the water supply finally reaches them.

Ø  The actual raw water supply that enters Maynilad’s treatment plants for the day (lower volume received means less water for distribution).

That is why they always remind their customers of the rotational water service interruption schedule assigned in their areas. They also advise to store enough water when supply is available.

I also learned about Maynilad's efforts and augmentation projects to mitigate impact of reduced water supply allocation. Maynilad has been implementing mitigating measures since last year to alleviate the impact of a water shortage during summer 2020. These measures would essentially add water supply for distribution to its 9.7 million customers despite the deficit from Angat and Ipo Dams. These are:

Ø  Reactivating deep wells within its concession area, using additional treatment technology to make the yield potable.

Ø  Sustaining reduction of water losses through pipe replacement and repairs (Maynilad has already replaced over 2,500 kilometers of old pipes and repaired more than 360,000 pipe leaks since 2008).

Ø  Optimizing its Putatan Water Treatment Plant 1 (PWTP 1), which draws raw water from Laguna Lake. This facility produces 150 million liters per day (MLD) of additional supply.

Ø  Commissioning of PWTP 2 – a second treatment plant that also draws more water from Laguna Lake, providing another 150 MLD of water for distribution to customers.

Ø  Purchasing modular treatment plants that will tap rivers in Cavite – Maynilad is exploring the deployment of modular water treatment plants that will extract raw water from Cavite rivers within the West Zone.

Ø  Deploying mobile tankers and stationary water tanks

Ø  Conducting cloud-seeding operations

Given the current water shortage, we as consumers should also do our share to preserve the limited supply through responsible use of water.  That is, of course, to do our best to conserve water until the rainy season starts. Just store enough water that you will need for the duration of a service interruption. Drawing too much water after service resumption will not only prevent the supply from reaching highly elevated and fringe areas, it may also cause the hoarder’s water bill to spike.

According to NWRB, if every one of 15 million Filipinos saves four liters of water a day, we can collectively save 60 million liters per day. Such water savings can go a long way in ensuring that water levels in Angat Dam will recover enough for NWRB to increase allocation for the MWSS.

Lastly, remember this:  “Sapat ang tubig kung responsible ang paggamit”.

For more details and rotational water service interruption reminders, follow Maynilad on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MayniladWater/ / Twitter: https://twitter.com/maynilad and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4wv7l8rKwzDMvtNIzGRgQg Website: http://www.mayniladwater.com.ph/