City under state of imminent calamity
Concerned about the water shortage the city is currently facing, the Sangguniang Panglungsod of Iloilo on Wednesday passed a resolution declaring the city as under the state of imminent calamity eventually calling on the national government to help by conducting cloud seeding operations.
The resolution, however, came late as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has already ordered a cloud seeding operation for Iloilo and even Negros Occidental last week.
Earlier, President Arroyo ordered the Department of Agriculture through its Bureau of Soils and Water Management to conduct a cloud seeding operation. It was learned that the cloud seeding operation will be made first week of May.
Iloilo City, which is dependent on water supplied by the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD), has been experiencing limited water supply these past few days due to scarcity of water from source.
The water supply dropped from 42,400 cubic meters per day to 22,500 cubic meters per day.
"This acute water shortage represents 47 percent of the usual supply due to the present drought that has hit Iloilo City and province. The city residents and concessionaires are complaining about this water shortage," said City Councilor Eduardo Peñaredondo, author of the resolution, noted.
Data provided by MIWD Interim Manager Edwin Reyes showed that water produced from the water district's sources drastically reduced from 40,655 cubic meters per day to only 26,000 cubic meters per day. MIWD's primary source of water supply is the Maasin Watershed.
The MIWD also need to produce 44,105,38 cubic meters per day of water to cater the needs of its 128,000 city consumers. The normal production of water in the water treatment plan is 350 liters per second or 30,240 cubic meters per day.
The water district has nine water treatment plants and nine water pumping stations, mostly located in towns outside Iloilo City. They have two sources of water, the ground water sources and water treatment plants.
The scarcity of water from its sources prompted the rationing scheme in Iloilo. Before the rationing scheme, the water district can produce 141 liters per second or 12,182 cubic meters per day of water from ground water sources. Now, they can only have 7,862 cubic meters per day. The volume of water from their water treatment plants and water pumping stations are not enough to address the needs of the consumers.