Water level at the Buhisan dam has tremendously dropped in a month’s time. The dam was almost dried up in this March 11, 2019 photo. /CDN Digital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Buhisan dam in Cebu City is almost dried up.
Charmaine Kara, spokesperson of the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD), said that as of today, March 26, they were already unable to extract water from the dam which supplies at least six percent of their daily water production.
Kara said water from the dam normally goes to the around 6, 000 households located in Cebu City’s uptown area including Barangays Sambag I and II.
She said that water rationing is now being implemented in parts of Banawa, Horseshoe Drive, Capitol Site, Oppra, Ipil-Ipil, Camputhaw, Clavano, Sambag I, Sambag II, F. Ramos. Street, B. Rodriguez Street, Juana Osmeña Street, the city’s pier area, North Reclamation Area, MJ Cuenco Ave. and M. Velez Street from 10 a .m. to 5 p.m. daily.
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MCWD’s other water sources are the Jaclupan dam and groundwater wells.
During the Agio Forum on Tuesday morning, March 26, Kara said that they are now looking at the possibility of tapping wells in Barangay Talamban to supply water to the city’s uptown barangays that used to depend on the Buhisan dam.
Kara gave the assurance that MCWD will continue find means to provide water to consumers who are within their service areas. At the same time, she urged their consumers to start to learn to store water so they will have something to use during the duration of the summer months.
Metro Cebu’s current water demand is now at 450,000 cubic meters per day but MCWD only produces 250,000 cubic meters.
“We (have) refused new applications from 44 areas in Metro Cebu for the sole reason that we do not have enough supply,” said Kara.
Kara admitted that MCWD is now “desperately scouring” Metro Cebu to find new water sources.
She said they are prepared to negotiate with both the private and public lot owners who are willing to have their property drilled for groundwater.
MCWD is also looking at the possibility of taping the use of desalinated water for Mactan Island’s use and the development of the Mananga dam to generate an additional 80,000 cubic meters of water for Metro Cebu’s future use. /dcb