Heavy rains blamed for low water supply

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

It sounds ironic but the water distribution utility in Metro Iloilo cited heavy rains in recent days as the reason for low water supply and pressure.

Metro Pacific Iloilo Water (MPIW) recently released a public service announcement that several areas in Iloilo would experience low water supply and low water pressure – portions of Pavia, Sta. Barbara, San Miguel, Jaro district and the whole of Iloilo City Proper, and Molo, La Paz, Lapuz, Mandurriao, and Arevalo districts, as well as Savannah and Eon Centennial subdivisions.

MPIW is the joint venture company of the Manny V. Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Water Investments Corp. and Metro Iloilo Water District, which is a government-owned and controlled corporation.

Its coverage area includes Iloilo City and the towns of Cabatuan, Leganes, Maasin, Oton, Pavia, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara in Iloilo province.

The reason for the supply and pressure shortage – heavy rains which also affected MPIW’s bulk water suppliers.

In an interview with Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo, MPIW Chief Operating Officer Ben Mañosca personally apologized to the public for the shortage and explained the situation.

Mañosca said their bulk water suppliers informed them of the shortage between end of June and the early part of July due to water turbidity.

Water is considered turbid if it is “cloudy, opaque, or thick with suspended matter” (Oxford dictionary).

Continuous rain in the watershed areas made it difficult for the suppliers to treat the water in their facilities.

He also said that water turbidity is also partly due to some consumers’ use of local pumps.

The most affected areas are Barangays San Pedro, San Juan, and North Baluarte in Molo district, the whole of City Proper, Barangays Bolilao and Hibao-an and Guzman Street in Mandurriao district, Dungon areas in Jaro district, and Bolong and Balabag in Pavia.

“This was told to us by our bulk water suppliers, those who provide us with the water, which is why we at MPIW are affected and we have little distributed water to our consumers,” Mañosca said.

He acknowledged that due to the shortages, customer calls have increased, which is why the MPIW deployed water tanker deliveries to affected areas.

“We have static tanks deployed in these areas, and we have more tankers being built at every section points to augment the water supplied to our customers. Because the supply our company is getting is low from our water suppliers, we have customers being affected,” he added.

As to when water supply would normalize, Mañosca said it all depends on their bulk water suppliers.

MPIW has three bulk water suppliers – its “sister company” Metro Iloilo Bulk Water, the Florete-led Flo Water, and the Villar-led Prime Water.

He said that MPIW will continue to provide regular updates to consumers through their official Facebook page.

“In coordination with our bulk water suppliers, they are also taking steps to mitigate and add the supply being given to us. So if you ask me when [water supply will return to normal levels], I cannot say because we are also depending on our bulk water suppliers, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t doing anything. They are working to increase our supply,” he said.

Mañosca also addressed ongoing works on the water distribution infrastructure which MPIW promised to improve since it commenced operations on July 1, 2019.

“What people are seeing, the construction near our roads, they do affect water supply, but its effect would be better because we are doing many leak repairs which improves the supply we give to our customers. We are doing this to improve our service to consumers. We are also doing a lot of pipe laying and metering projects, the objective of which is to improve water distribution,” he said.