The Puerto Princesa City Water District (PPCWD), in a report to the city government, said its cloud seeding operations had been successful in augmenting the city’s water supply during the past drought season.
The agency said it had conducted a total of 37 cloud seeding sorties, with a measured success rate of 75.67 percent having generated 28 rainfalls around watershed areas.
Jenn Rausa, PPCWD acting information officer, said that their success measurement was based on the figures given by the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BWSM) which spearheaded the first cloud seeding operations in Puerto Princesa.
“Ito ay sa report nila [ng BWSM]. Accordingly, itong level o rate na ito ay mataas na. Hindi masasabing bumagsak siya dahil kung ikukumpara sa iba nilang operations, ito po[ng sa atin] since this is also the first time, mako-consider na natin ito as successful and ‘yong results ay very satisfactory,” Rausa said.
She said that all of 28 sorties had rain fall directly over the target area.
Rausa said that the water district had a 40-hour cloud seeding contract with Fliteline Airways targeting the watershed areas in the city that started May 10 and ended on June 6.
A total of 490 bags of iodized salt were used in 37 operational flights over four stations, she said.
She further said that 14 bags were dispensed per sortie in a four-operational-flight schedule per day.
There were four monitoring stations located at the Old Airport, Urko Hill within Irawan Watershed, Solomon along Iwahig area, and West Coast in Simpocan which assessed the operations and operations were conducted, she added.
From May 10 to June 6, a total 151 mm of accumulated rain fell in Campo Uno; Urko Hill, 167mm; Infiltration Gallery 51.30 mm; and Tagaud Station, 57.2 mm.
“Iyan po [Campo Uno, Urko Hill, Infiltration Gallery, and Tagud Station] ay ‘yong mga areas na nilagyan natin ng rain gauge,” Rausa said.
She said the overall water production of the city’s main water source in “Campo Uno, rivers, and pumping stations” from the time period of April 26-May 3 is 29,000 cubic meters per day.
During the last week of May, the overall water supply rose to 42,905.47 cubic meter per day. Rausa said the daily demand of the city is around 40,000 cubic meters.
