The city water district has placed Puerto Princesa under Water Crisis Alert Level 1 due to the substantial decline in water supply coming from the Campo Uno reservoir in Barangay Irawan and its deep wells.
In an advisory from Puerto Princesa City Water District (PPCWD) general manager Antonio Jesus Romasanta early Monday, he said production reports have shown “that water sources manifested a decline in their production since the beginning of the year” due to inadequate rainfall.
Romasanta said from January 24-31, Campo Uno was able to maintain at least 42 percent of its average production, while overall production of surface and groundwater sources was recorded at 82 percent of their normal production.
“The effects of the decreasing water supply were experienced by consumers in some parts of the city, particularly those located in elevated areas in the city proper, have low to no water pressure for the past weeks,” Romasanta said.
Because of the situation, Romasanta said the PPCWD Contingency Team has implemented mitigating measures to address the demand for water, especially during the summer.
These are water injection in affected areas, valving, and activation of standby pumping stations.
“With the declaration of Water Crisis Alert Level 1, we are encouraging our consumers to conserve water in this time of need. Rest assured that we are doing our best to respond to this situation responsibly. We apologize for the inconvenience,” Romasanta said.
PPCWD information officer Jenn Rausa said Sunday that the mitigating measures they started in December 2019 will be applied to address the situation.
“Hopefully, kahit papaano ‘yong mga ginagawa namin maka-respond sa kulang na water supply kaso ang hirap lang ngayon since araw-araw nababawasan ‘yong supply natin. Hindi naman nakaka-recover kasi walang ulan,” she said.
“As per PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration) they are expecting na mag-declare ng drought condition dito. Ibig sabihin napakababa ng rainfall condition natin in the past months, insufficient to replenish our sources,” she added.
Rausa said since November, no rain shower was recorded to replenish water in their sources. From 18,000 cubic meters per day of water production in Campo Uno, the latest records show that it decreased to 8,000 cubic meters.
She said part of the contingency measures is doing cloud seeding again by March.
“Noong December 2018 umuulan pa rito, pero November last year wala na talagang ulan. But we are looking forward naman sa cloud seeding operations natin. By March makapag-start na or as soon as matapos lahat ng requirements and processes natin,” she said.
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