MCWD gets more water

TO cushion the effects of continued low water supply, the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) plans to get additional water from private suppliers starting next month, but it will also mean slightly higher water cost for the water district’s consumers.

Charmaine Rodriguez-Kara,  MCWD public affairs head, said in the Association of Government Information Officers-Central Visayas (AGIO 7) forum yesterday that they have requested an additional supply of 10,000 cubic meters of water per day — 5,000 from the Cebu Manila Water Development Corp. (CMWD) and another 5,000 from the Abejo Waters Corporation (AWC).

But Kara warned that there might be a slight increase in their consumers’ water bill two months after the additional supply is delivered in April or May.

“The Purchase Water Adjustment (PWA) for the additional supply will be divided by all our consumers, depending the volume they are using from MCWD,” Kara said.

She assured though that the additional amount will be less than ten percent of the consumers’ existing water bills.

For example, she said, a household that pays an average monthly water bill of P300 will likely pay at least P20  more but not more than P100.

MCWD is producing around 214,000 cubic meters of water daily. But production in two of its major water sources,  the Buhisan Dam and the Jaclupan Dam in Talisay City, has dropped. Buhisan Dam has completely dried up from its usual supply of around 5,000 to 7,000 cubic meters while Jaclupan Dam now only produces 26,000 cu. m. from its normal rate of 28,000 cu. m.

Oscar Tabada, chief of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) in the Visayas, said Cebu has been experiencing a dry spell this month with a rainfall deficit of 21 to 60 percent amid the official onset of the summer season on March 18.

“On average, we usually record around 64.4 millimeters of rainfall for the whole month of March. But so far this month, we have only recorded 0.2 millimeters,” he said.