The Buhisan Dam’s water level has gone down at the height of the El Niño in March 2019. /CDN Digital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Buhisan Dam is recovering from the effects of the El Niño.
Charmaine Kara, Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) spokesperson, said this during an interview on June 25 as the Buhisan Dam had started producing 2,000 cubic meters of water per day from zero production in more than two months.
Read more: IN PHOTOS: The Buhisan dam in Cebu City is drying up
Kara said that after the start of the rainy season on June 14, MCWD’s total production of water had increased to 230,000 cubic meters per day, nearing the normal average of 238,000 cubic meters per day.
In the peak of the summer, around May, the total water production dropped to 190,000 cubic meters per day.
Read more: Rains bring Jaclupan Dam’s water level slightly up; Buhisan Dam still dry
Kara attributed the recovery of the water supply production to the recent rains which replenished the surface water sources including the Jaclupan Dam and the Buhisan Dam.
Kara said that consumers in Barangays Tisa, Labangon, Capitol Site, Sambag I and II reported having 24-hour water supply although some areas still had experienced water supply disruption.
The Jaclupan Dam has also almost reached its normal 30,000 cubic meters production, at 27,000 cubic meters per day, allowing an increase in supply in the southern parts of Metro Cebu.
“The water supply is expected to normalize within the next two months into the rainy season,” said Kara in Cebuano.
Read more: Rainy season here, but El Niño may last until November
She said that it will take two months of normal average rainfall to normalize the supply.
The El Niño is expected to end around August as predicted by the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration in Central Visayas (Pagasa-7), and the MCWD is expecting a normal supply by that time.
Read more: Cebu City’s Sambag residents get free water rations from MCWD
Kara also said that the barangays were no longer requesting water trucks which was a good indicator that the water supply had returned to the affected barangays.
She said she was hoping that the water supply would normalize soon so that the consumers in highland areas would already get their supply of water./dbs