Water Outage in Metro Manila

It's hard to believe, in a place where so much rain can fall and flooding occurs. But they need more dams, to capture those rains. I understand there are a couple in the preliminary phase, but it should have been done by now. We are beginning the dry summer months and an El Nino cycle which will result in less rainfall this year. It could get very serious. In any case, it is a wake up call for people not to waste. Here in Cebu they are trucking water to many places where wells have dried up.

Yes, it is really unfortunate to see amount of water people waste. In our village, maids go on wasting water to wash the road outside their house perhaps in a bid to settle the dust. And their employers seem totally oblivious to this wastage. As a result everyone has to pay the price by facing the water scarcity. Preservation of resources doesn't come with education alone, it comes when we understand our responsibility towards the society.

Poonam Chaudhry wrote:

Preservation of resources doesn't come with education alone, it comes when we understand our responsibility towards the society.

Absolutely  right, however that is a concept that is not well comprehended here. People tend to do what they want despite the cost or inconvenience to others.

Welcome folks,

Pretty soon we will have to take a dump in the street, with no water or low pressure to flush. Third world nation? We have a long way to go to reach that status. Such an outrage. . . .  .So when somebody  post "I'm thinking about moving to the Philippines" say great, it's a paradise.  You can advised  them "Don't the water, if you can find any."

Good news you only have to wait till rainy season, so don't drink, don't shower, don't take a dump, don't wash your clothes, don't wash your dishes,  pots & pans, did I miss anything?

Since I am in the Philippines, 20 years, I have seen that several times, even stronger than this year... what I dont understand is why nothing has been done in 20 years to improve the system !

Well it's not just the Philippines where this happens. Capetown, South Africa came perilously close to running out of water last year. California, where I grew up has ongoing issues due to planning during wet decades and big impacts from climate change. There have also been some cities in the American Southeast that almost went dry recently.

One could say they haven't planned adequately and there has probably been some deferment of infrastructure investment, but short term conditions such as a drought year and El Nino, exacerbated by long term population growth and climate change can sneak up pretty quick if there has been complacency after a few good wet years. Sounds like that's what happened here.

If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down. 

That is what Melbourne city used to say to the people in Australia, yep it happens everywhere.

I just got water back yesterday after almost 7 days of water shortage. I were still fortunate since I am living in a 'high-rise' condominium and the management paid the firetruck to come and distribute water. I heard at a more 'local' subdivision, people had to wait for Manila Water truck to arrive and there was no schedule whatsoever, they would just wait there till the truck arrived.

They told us reason was because of the dam is dried up due to El Nino. The thing is, the dam is still dried up at the moment but we have water now, only after this caught media attention and the president started to give direct order, then all government agencies and water companies started to share their water with Manila Water to supply. This proves that El Nino is just partly the reason, the true reason is the poor management from both Manila Water company and government agency who oversees their operation. I mean, when you supply an essential thing such as water to millions of people, if you dam is about to dried up, you should have raised your voice to the government or other business partner to help. It's not like the dam is dried over the night. This could have been prevented but no one cares to lift a finger to address until it happens and the media steps in. Manila Water company slogan is Care In Every Drop. I think they should change it to We Don't Care!

global challenge wrote:

kindawn wrote:

I just got water back yesterday after almost 7 days of water shortage. I were still fortunate since I am living in a 'high-rise' condominium and the management paid the firetruck to come and distribute water. I heard at a more 'local' subdivision, people had to wait for Manila Water truck to arrive and there was no schedule whatsoever, they would just wait there till the truck arrived.

They told us reason was because of the dam is dried up due to El Nino. The thing is, the dam is still dried up at the moment but we have water now, only after this caught media attention and the president started to give direct order, then all government agencies and water companies started to share their water with Manila Water to supply. This proves that El Nino is just partly the reason, the true reason is the poor management from both Manila Water company and government agency who oversees their operation. I mean, when you supply an essential thing such as water to millions of people, if you dam is about to dried up, you should have raised your voice to the government or other business partner to help. It's not like the dam is dried over the night. This could have been prevented but no one cares to lift a finger to address until it happens and the media steps in. Manila Water company slogan is Care In Every Drop. I think they should change it to We Don't Care!

Care in every FLOP. As I stated above, in Cape Town they were perilously close to running out of water after years of very low rainfall. Eventually this year they got some rain which took them from critical and desperate to medium to low water level. What most people do not know is the water shortage was being used by corrupt politicians to gain voting power and I am sure a similar situation ocurred in Manila. The very people we give power to with votes do not care about the masses and only care about staying in power because the perks are really good and all your cronies benefit. Unfortunately dirty politicians the world over are all the same. However if you look a bit deeper, they are not the ones pulling the strings but rather the corporatocracies who stand to benefit by winning over politicians and hence big favours and even bigger contracts which brings in lots of money and more power.

I think you have a point. Guess what I just read on the news today. A new dam to be constructed, with fund borrowed from China. One thing about fund provided by China, unlike loan from the US, they have less requirements, but their interest rate is really fucked up. Its like a loan shark at the worldwide level. I heard from my Filipino friends that people have been opposing this china funded project for a very long time and this water shortage is just something the government uses to justify the need for a new dam, which conveniently use the fund from high interest loan from China.

Link to the news article: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1096994/m … USgFJXed.1

You do seem to spoil you argument by suggesting that airplane contrails are purposely produced in order to cause earthquakes and tsunamis. Even a few seconds thought would show that the few grams of water vapour in a plane's contrail could lift and move not just continents but whole tectonic plates is ridiculous beyond measure. We have had powered flight around a century but tectonic plates have been shifting around building and destroying continents almost since the world began

Now you know why foreigners are permitted to buy condos and not other more valuable properties.
The water problem is going to stay with us for a long time and by the time it's gone, some other problem will arise.
I can already see the traffic becoming a real nightmare in all major cities across the Philippines.
No wonder THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE PHILIPPINES has issued a warning saying that Manila will become un-inhabitable mostly due to traffic congestion, by the year 2020. If you don't believe it, take a ride at 5PM to the airport and you'll quickly realise that the expiration date is fast approaching.
It looks like this warning has fallen on deaf years, but I betcha it will be heard once the real estate prices start plummeting and cockroaches start fleeing out of the city.
All Asians are convinced that one can't lose money in real estate, they'll soon discover they were wrong. The EXIT door will be jammed solid when that happens.
It's already happening in China, but for different reasons.

@PalawanBob True what you say, man. Real estate market is on cocaine now and is heading for a crash. I think Filipinos in this business know it, though. I think that's why they want to keep raising prices and get as much money as they can now before it all crumbles down.

"issued a warning saying that Manila will become un-inhabitable mostly due to traffic congestion, by the year 2020." - can you link to that, I would like to read that.

Are things better in Narra? I was there once, it seemed very remote and not much there. Don't you get bored?