Power outages affecting water supply

THE public is advised to continue to store water.

Edna Inocando, officer-in-charge of the Public Affairs Department (PAD) of Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) said water supply is continuously affected by the ongoing rotational brownouts.

“Dependent man sa power. Bisag one hour ang rotational brownout pero dako og effect sa water supply kay ang one hour mahurot ana ang tubig sa reservoir. Once mobalik ang power, mo-build up pressure and take two to three hours para mapuno ang tangke,” Inocando told Cebu Daily News.

(We are power dependent. Even if it is an hour of rotational brownout, but this has a big effect since the water from the reservoir will be fully consumed in an hour. Once the power is back, it takes time to build the pressure and takes two to three hours to fill the reservoir and tanks.)

While there are pump stations located along the roads and highways, it is difficult to deploy generator sets.

“Like one hour na rotational brown out. Dili man pwede mabiyaan sad if gigamit. Guyuron na sad gikan Talamban and mo take og travel time like more than an hour. Niya inig abot didto mobalik naman ang power,” Inocando added.

(For example, during an hour of rotational brownout, we cannot leave the generator set if it is being used. The generator will also have to be brought from Talamban, where these are stored, to wherever it is needed, which would entail travel time of more than an hour. By the time it arrives in the affected area, power is back.)

There are 128 wells under MCWD but generator sets cannot sustain water supply especially for the elevated areas.

The schedule of power outages from the Visayas Electric Company also helps the public prepare and store water.

Inocando has requested for exemption from the rotational brownouts especially where their pumping stations are located, which according to Quennie Bronce, reputation enhancement manager of Veco, that same request was made years ago and the Veco’s stand remains the same.

“We cannot grant MCWD’s request for exemption in the rotating the brownouts. Doing so will be discriminatory to other Veco customers who are also affected by the brownouts,” Bronce in an official statement.

Exempting MCWD from the rotating brownouts where their pumping locations are located would also translate to operational constraints on the part of Veco especially in meeting the curtailment share set by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

MCWD has 177,000 connections from Talisay City in southern Cebu to the town of Compostela in northern Cebu.

MCWD’s daily target of water production is at 237,894 cubic meters while its monthly target is at 7,374,710 cubic meters.

Last July 11, MCWD’s total production was at 212,785 cubic meters which were sourced from different facilities and bulk water suppliers.