2019

Manila Water Crisis: A Reaction

De Ocampo, Danielle Angela

CE-4206
 The crisis due to water shortage is alarming 200 or so barangays in Metro Manila in the past few
weeks. Residents are outside water stations piling up their empty pails and basins in hope for a temporary
relief in the midst of the water insufficiency. It is easy to put the blame in the effects of El Niño because it
rarely rain these days, enabling the lack of emergency water to fill up La Mesa Dam which the Manila
Water uses. But Manila Water officials clarified that the dry season is not the problem, instead, the
proportion of supply and demand. Supposedly, Manila wont experience this kind of crisis if water
infrastructure projects are not delayed. For example, Kaliwa Dam should be able to supply 600 million
liters per day in Metro Manila but it was opposed by many environmentalists and the catholic church for
its negative effect. One solution proposed by the authorities is that Manila Water would share supply of
water from Maynilad. As a measure , it is advisable for the people to conserve water until the rainy
season. Zobel de Ayala, Jaime Augosto and Fernando, owners of Ayala Corporation, the parent company
of Manila Water, issued a statement to its customers taking responsibility of the water crisis in Manila.
Relative to that, they have waved full bill for March 2019, for those leaving in severely affected
barangays.
It is really unimaginable that water shortage happens in the Philippines knowing that we are an
archipelago which means that we are very much surrounded by vast bodies of waters. Based on the news,
people panic when they receive advisories regarding insufficiency of water that will last for hours leading
to unexpected increase in demand of water supply that causes water sources to deplete faster than
expected. Normally, people won’t behave that way since the water interruption will only last for a couple
of hours per day. But since they have past experiences of water shortages lasting for days without water
flowing through their faucets and their tanks being empty, they expected that the same thing will happen,
so they will try to anticipate it by filling up containers of emergency water. This does not only affect the
initial cities included in the advisory but also those cities that are not mentioned.
On the other hand, government projects for water infrastructures are being delayed for decades
due to the opposition of different sectors which includes environmental, church and indigenous groups.
They argued that building the dam will have adverse effects in the environment as well as to the people
living near the site. Although they have a point, the government won’t just build the dam without any
plan. As a civil engineering student, we are taught to consider the environment and socio-economic
aspects by undertaking feasibility studies to assess the effects of the project to those mentioned above.
With that in mind, the government will compensate the people and will be relocated to much safer areas.
In my perspective, the government is really having a difficult time dealing with the opposition but doesn’t
those people in the opposition think that even if they might be affected, the dam is really crucial to
maintain stability in the metro and nearby provinces. Water is a basic necessity and its absence will
impede growth of the nation.
 If building the dam won’t be possible, it is necessary for the government and private sectors to
explore other sources of water. For example, United States’ nuclear submarines are able to stay
underwater for months due to food limitations but in terms of water, they are able to treat seawater to a
potable water to its crew. Some countries in the Middle East use the Aral sea as their source of water. So
why is it not possible in the Philippines to do the same? As mentioned earlier, Philippines is an
archipelago, surrounded by vast bodies of water, which means that there are lots of water resources
waiting to be used.
Bottom line, we are now living in a technologically-driven era and I think Philippines is lagging
behind.The households are not the only one affected, but also bussiness, establishments and services. The
severity of the crisis has led the public hospitals to turn away patients with less urgent needs. Bussiness,
on the other hand, already reduced its water demand by closing some restrooms and shuting off aesthetic
devices that consumes large amount of water such as swimming pools and fountains. These results to loss
in revenue. This also leads to poorer services offered by these establishments. Poor sanitation and hygiene
is also rampant.
To think not being able to take a bath for days during dry season, when the sun is scorching hot,
is a struggle that is not to disregard or belittle. Since Philippines is a tropical country and it’s summer
with no water to spare, it is very dangerous especifically to the elderly and children, considering their
health. Risks such as heat stroke, is a possible impact of this crisis.
What came to my mind is the problem might be the composition of the board in Metropolitan
Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS). Senator Joel Villanueva states that MWSS is incompetent
mainly due to the composition of its board. He questioned the limited presence of engineers and experts
to be able to determine the real situation of the problem, I think one must have background of subjects
related to water resources. This will enable them to formulate long term solutions based on the date
interpreted by the experts and not by politicians. One must note that managing water resources of the
country is not merely a guessing game. This must be taken seriously to avoid mismanagement and not as
a form of fragrance in their names. As a solution, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered that 600,000 million
liters of waters to be released from Angat Dam which is good for 150 days to boost supplies. Although it
might be a good solution, MWSS is bottlenecked by infrastructures limiting them from procurring 4,000
million liters daily from Angat Dam. On the other hand, San Miguel Corporation offered 140 million
liters daily from its Bulacan Treatment Plant. Although it may sound as a good solution, it will require
14,000 trips a day using 10 kiloliter tanks.
There has been a speculation that the Manila water crisis is an “artificial” problem. A certain
Myles Jamito stated there is a bypass system that is closed due to unknown reasons but opening it will
dissolve the problem almost instantaneously. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo also discussed the
possibility of the water shortage may be artificial. If reports that the Angat Dam level is not critical,
Panelo said that this could be just inefficiency and mismanagement. I’m sorry, what? “Just inefficiency”
is not a phrase to use for something this serious. Those water concessionaires must follow what they have
been asked to do by the law: to implement proper operation and maintenance of waterworks system to
insure an uninterrupted and adequate supply and distribution of potable water, as stated in section 1 of
Republic Act No. 6234. Government is not a place to be incompetent. There are also some rumors that the
government created the artificial crisis for them to be able to rush the Kaliwa dam project. This does not
make sense to me but it could be a possibility. Some people blame the privatization as the underlying
reason to the crisis. Government has the biggest accountability for ensuring water to people and
privatization removes the effective state control over the water resources. In addition, private
concessionaires are also accused of not improving their infrastructures to maximize the existing water
supply considering that they executed may service fee hikes in the past.
As we know there are millions of people who don’t have access to clean drinking water. People
from poor countries spent almost their entire day just to search for a clean potable water. They don’t
always have a choice so they take what is readily available even though the water might be infected of
full of bacteria. That it is easy for those people to get sick. Little to no water means poor sanitation and
hygiene, not enough crops to produce foods resulting to less stable country.
We were blessed that we are surrounded by immense bodies of water because we don’t have to
live our lives searching for water and getting sick. Many of our fellow have never really learned how
water is so much important for us. They take it for granted, they waste it and think that water supply is
indefinite which is not true. Not because we see a lot of water does not mean that we should use it
inappropriately.
There is no specific person to blame about this crisis. All of us is responsible for the
mismanagement and improper use of our resource. To solve this, education is really crucial. Yes we do
know the water cycle, we know that water is a basic need but education does not end in just understanding
the concept of water. One must learn to respect and value it not by just conserving it. As an engineering
student, we are thought of different concepts related to managing our water, how it behave, and how we
could possibly use our knowledge to create viable solution or prevention for future crises. Engineers are
not the only one who should participate, but also all people in the community especially women. This is a
shared challenge and they key to drive community awareness and action is the collective effort of every
individual.
Building dams may be a viable solution as of now as we face this crisis. Although many people
will get affected, this will contribute to the growth and stability of our nation. Since it is projected to be
finished by 2025, for now, we must cut our water demand this summer. Maybe for the authorities of
Manila water, and different cooperatives managing water supplies, it is crucial for them to minimize loss
due to leaking.