When the tap runs dry

Summer is almost here. It’s evident in how the sun shines more brightly and in the dry air. Soon, Metro Manila residents can expect the dryness to extend to their faucets.

Ironically, however, the reduced water supply is due more to the onslaught of rains in November and December last year than to summer. The flash floods caused by rains over Quezon carried logs and debris down to the Umiray River, clogging the tunnel linking it to Angat Dam. As a result, the water level in the Angat Dam, which supplies water to Metro Manila and to 25,000 hectares of farmland in Bulacan and Pampanga, has gone down from 196.58 meters to 195.4 meters. The level is not dangerously low. Not yet, at least.