The Puerto Princesa City Water District (PPCWD) is looking forward to conduct a cloud seeding this coming March to augment water supply for consumers.
Jenn Rausa, PPCWD spokesperson told Palawan Daily News (PDN) Monday, February 10, this is after they received a statement from the local weather authority noting a high probability of declaring a “drought season” this month, February.
“Habang wala pang cloud seeding sana sunud-sunod na itong ulan na ito para kung hindi na kinakailangang mag-cloud seeding [ay] huwag na pong mag-cloud seeding. Pero, may announcement po kasi ang PAG-ASA na ngayong February baka mag-declare din sila ng drought, so naghihintay lang, kita naman talaga ‘yong effect noon. Since November [2019] wala pong ulan kaya ‘yong epekto, talagang ‘yong ibang part ng ilog Irawan, tuyo na talaga,” said Rausa.
Rausa said the Campo Uno river in Barangay Irawan, which is the city’s main water source, is only supplying less than 50 percent of its normal production since last week.
In a public advisory dated February 7, which was released Monday, PPCWD general manager Antonio Romasanta stated their production monitoring report for January 24-31 revealed this significant decline in the production of city’s water source.
He said the report showed that Campo Uno maintains only 42 percent of its average production, while its surface water ground system is at 82 percent of its normal production.
“With the declaration of Water Crisis Alert Level 1, we are encouraging consumers to conserve water in this time of need. Rest assured that we are doing our best to respond to this situation responsibly. We apologize for the inconvenience,” said Romasanta in the advisory.
Meanwhile, Rausa said mitigating measures such as water injection and delivery to the affected areas, water supply valving, and activating and extending of the water pumping stations, are being done continuously to augment the supply for consumers.