Cebu Water Firm Issues ‘Store Water’ Advisory As Supply Drops By 20,000 Cubic Meters Due To Dry Spell

The Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) has issued a “store water” advisory to its consumers after its daily water supply dipped by some 20,000 cubic meters due to the dry spell.

MCWD public affairs manager Charmaine Rodriguez-Kara said 44 areas in the cities of Cebu, Talisay and Lapu-Lapu and Liloan town have experienced low pressure to no water supply for 15 hours from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. starting Thursday due to El Niño.

“Consumers in elevated areas and interior parts of Talisay City, Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City and Liloan are advised to store water during off peak hours or from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.,” the advisory states.

Kara said MCWD gets 20 percent of its total water production of 214,000 cubic meters per day from the Jaclupan weir in Talisay City and the Buhisan Dam in the hinterland of Cebu City.

But Kara said the Buhisan Dam, which supplies 7,000 cibuc meters of water a day, has completely dried up since the first week of March.

On the other hand, water production from the Jaclupan facility has dropped from 33,000 cubic meters of water a day to only about 20,000 cubic meters per day.

Kara said the water at the Jaclupan facility can no longer be replenished since the Mananga River has also dried up.

Kara said the combined water deficit is now at 20,000 cubic meters per day, which is already 50 percent below the total capacity of Jaclupan and Buhisan Dam, which is 40,000 cubic meters a day.

With an average household consuming 0.8 cubic meters per day, Kara said the deficit they have will affect the water supply of around 21,000 households.

Aside from Jaclupan and Buhisan Dam, MCWD’s other sources are the more than 120 groundwater sources in different parts of Cebu and four private water suppliers.

Kara said MCWD had been saving 5,000 cubic meters of water per day since July last year to prepare for the dry spell, but she said the savings are depleted, “and it is not even the middle of summer yet.”

MCWD started distributing or using the reserves in the middle of March when the water production at the Jaclupan facility started to go down.

“That’s how fast it was depleted,” she said.

MCWD had projected that the reserves they had will last for two more months.

Kara said MCWD is expecting an additional 24,000 cubic meters of water per day from the Cebu Manila Water Development, with 5,000 cubic meters per day expected to be supplied this month.

But Kara said it will not be enough to offset the deficit. (PNA) JMC/EB/EDS