MIWD plans to do water scheduling
In the absence of rain, the water level at the Maasin Watershed, the main water source of the province and city of Iloilo, ebbed to 93.60 meters above sea level.
The said number is a far cry from the normal 93.75 meters above sea level.
If rain would still not pour, Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) general manager Engr. Lee Jaime Jalbuena said that MIWD might go on a water scheduling scheme.
“We would course through the water at certain area that could serve our consumers. It’s not actually rationing but scheduling,” he explained.
Presently, Jalbuena said that there are some areas in Iloilo City where the MIWD do some delivery service using the company’s water tanker.
“We provide some areas with tanker wherein we inject that to the line,” he added.
Jalbuena is positive though that a cloud seeding operation would ease the condition of the Maasin Watershed.
MIWD, the sole water distributor of the city, extracts water from the Tigum River through an intake dam in Brgy. Daja, Maasin town. It also gets its supply from seven pumping stations in deep wells in Oton and San Miguel.
Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture – Region VI revealed that they might start the cloud seeding operation by next week.
The operation will be in partnership with the MIWD, which is expected to provide all ground supports.
According to DA regional executive director Larry Nacionales, the agency allotted P2.8 million for the cloud seeding operation in Western Visayas.
Some P1 million was allotted for Negros Occidental province.
In Iloilo, the areas surrounding the Maasin Watershed will be given priority.
Nacionales explained that they did not embark on a cloud seeding operation in consideration for planters of watermelon and mango, the fruits that thrive on dry season.
But even with the cloud seeding operation, the DA advised farmers to till their lands but not to plant crops until June.
Nacionales explained that this is because the prolonged dry spell is expected to last by the month of June.
