{"id":246875,"date":"2020-03-03T20:30:26","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T01:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=246875"},"modified":"2020-03-03T20:30:26","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T01:30:26","slug":"ph-to-have-enough-water-this-year-cimatu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/03\/ph-to-have-enough-water-this-year-cimatu\/","title":{"rendered":"PH to have \u2018enough water\u2019 this year: Cimatu"},"content":{"rendered":"
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He did not mention specifics, but relied on Cimatu\u2019s promise that there will no longer be any water service interruptions in Metro Manila. (Pixabay photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 With summer just around the corner, Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday said Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu has assured that there will be \u201cenough water\u201d in the country this year.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Cimatu gave this guarantee to President Rodrigo Duterte during the 47th Cabinet meeting on Monday night as part of the government\u2019s action plan in preparation for the dry season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Environment Secretary assured the President that we will have enough water for the year,\u201d he said in a press briefing.<\/p>\n

He did not mention specifics, but relied on Cimatu\u2019s promise that there will no longer be any water service interruptions in Metro Manila.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re assuring us that there will be no water problem. They\u2019re doing something about it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

During the meeting, Panelo said Cimatu presented his recent inspection of the capabilities and limitations of the Angat Dam, the primary source of drinking water for Metro Manila and irrigation water for farmlands in Bulacan and some parts of Pampanga.<\/p>\n

Cimatu\u2019s pronouncement came after water concessionaires earlier warned its customers of a \u201cstricter implementation\u201d of its rotational service interruption schedule that has been in place for several months now as the water level at Ipo Dam goes down.<\/p>\n

Maynilad and Manila Water advised its customers to prepare for interruptions and limited water supply as early as this week once the summer season kicks off.<\/p>\n

Both water concessionaires are in the process of negotiations for a new concession agreement with the government, which officials said may be finalized in the middle of the year.<\/p>\n

Raw water allocation from Angat Dam will be maintained at 42 cubic meters per second (cms) in March amid water service interruptions, the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) said.<\/p>\n

This figure remains below the normal allocation of 46 cms from the dam.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s water crisis in Metro Manila has prompted officials to look for other sources of water supply.<\/p>\n

In October 2019, Duterte said he is considering the use of \u201cextraordinary powers of the presidency\u201d to fast-track the construction of the Kaliwa Dam project to prevent another water crisis in Metro Manila.<\/p>\n

Despite opposition by groups, which claimed that the construction of the Kaliwa Dam would displace indigenous peoples (IPs), Duterte said he felt it would benefit more people.<\/p>\n

The Kaliwa Dam project in Infanta, Quezon is funded by Chinese loans while another project, the Wawa Dam in Rodriguez, Rizal is a joint venture of the consortium of Enrique Razon and Oscar Violago.<\/p>\n

The two projects are expected to provide an additional 600 million liters a day (MLD) and 80 MLD, respectively, to help service Metro Manila.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 With summer just around the corner, Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday said Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu has assured that there will …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":246877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246882,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246875\/revisions\/246882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}