Rains bring Jaclupan Dam’s water level slightly up; Buhisan Dam still dry

Jaclupan Dam. | CDN FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Jaclupan Dam is slowly recovering from the heat of the El Niño.

This was the statement of Charmaine Kara, spokesperson of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD), following the rains in line with the transition from the hot and dry season to the wet and rainy season.

Kara said the Jaclupan Dam in Talisay City had regained some of its supply from the critical level of 10,000 cubic meters per day to 17,000 cubic meters per day since Monday, May 27.

Read more: Water supply gets more scarce in Cebu as Jaclupan Dam’s infiltration basin dries up

She said the supply rose after a series of rains experienced in the southern parts of Cebu, which had included the Jaclupan facility, and this had also increased the supply to at least 7,000 household-consumers of MCWD.

Kara said she hoped that the rains would continue in the next days and weeks to bring back the Jaclupan Dam to its original average of 33,000 cubic meters per day, in turn allowing the water supply to normalize in the households.

“Ang resulta is katong mga areas nga niingon nga wala gyod silay tubig, ingon na sila nga naa nay agas. (The result is the areas whose residents said they did not have any water supply at all, said they already have water),” said Kara.

Read more: Heat drains water from Buhisan dam

Despite the progress of the Jaclupan Dam, the Buhisan Dam in Cebu City still has zero supply since according to Kara the area may have not received as much rain as the Jaclupan Dam.

The Buhisan Dam supplies an average of 6,000 cubic meters per day on a normal basis.

Read more: Pagasa: Rainy season may start mid of June but effects of El Niño could last until August

Kara, however, encouraged the public to keep on storing water as much as possible until the end of the El Niño, which is projected to last until August by the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services (Pagasa).

Meanwhile, in preparation for next year’s dry spell, the MCWD is now desilting the Jaclupan Dam facility to avoid the accumulation of mud and silt underneath the Jaclupan basin.

She said the desilting has been bidded out by the MCWD to outsource the project to other companies with more powerful machines to take away in bulk the silt under the Jaclupan basin.

Kara said this would be essential because the mud and silt would decrease the holding capacity of the basin, in turn lowering its capability to supply in the next dry spell when it could not be constantly replenished by rain.

She said the MCWD had been constantly looking for long term solutions to the water shortage in Metro Cebu and they were hoping to start the Mananga Dam project which had been expected to bring a supply of 80,000 cubic meters per day./dbs