Local water head braces for El Niño by ensuring no leakages in pipelines | Business and Politics
Local Water Utilities Administration chief Vicente “Vince” Revil says that their agency is ensuring that all water districts are gearing up for El Niño by making sure there are no leakages in their pipelines. He urged households to conserve water.
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Local Water Utilities Administration chief Vicente “Vince” Revil says that their agency is ensuring that all water districts are gearing up for El Niño by making sure there are no leakages in their pipelines. He urged households to conserve water.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Sir, one of the things that we have been told to brace for is the El Nino.
00:06 And of course, conservation is part and parcel of your agency's job, right?
00:12 Can you talk about, first of all, how we should prepare and what are you telling the water
00:19 districts to prepare?
00:21 And maybe later on, maybe what would you like individual households to do to prepare?
00:28 Our scientists and our experts have been saying that El Nino will happen towards the end of
00:34 this 2023 and towards the first quarter of 2024.
00:39 So we have to brace for it.
00:42 And that's part, again, of the water security that we have to ensure for our growing population.
00:49 Now on the part of LUA, we have already, we came up with a memorandum for all the water
00:54 districts, first and foremost, to ensure, we asked them about their water inventory.
01:01 And that is to ensure their water during the El Nino.
01:06 We are gathering, asking for their, how many surface water that they have, underground
01:14 water that they have, how many millions of liters that they can provide for their household.
01:20 That's very important for us.
01:21 So it should be the source.
01:24 Now on their transmissions, we're asking them to lessen their non-revenue waters.
01:30 So they have to be very, very conscious in their transmission lines.
01:36 That there should be no leakages.
01:39 And that they should ensure that all the pipes are being fixed and repaired as soon as time.
01:46 So that's why we have so many projects about this, lessening our non-revenue water.
01:51 And also on the part towards the household, we are asking that the household should be
01:57 more conscious with it.
02:03 Because we should conserve water.
02:05 We should conserve water because, again, towards this period, we should be very, very judicious
02:13 in using our water.
02:15 So we are asking the household to don't wash their cars.
02:24 They should only do it every so often.
02:27 We reuse the green water.
02:28 Reuse the water, like the green water to wash their cars and like that.
02:34 So again, that's our conservation effort.
02:37 And we are also asking that the educational sectors should educate our population, our
02:45 students, that this is a very limited resource.
02:50 That during the period of El Niño, we'll be experiencing a lot of lesser supply of
02:59 water for our population.
03:01 So this is what our directive now.
03:03 So actually, there will be an upcoming Water District Convention.
03:08 And again, I would like to reiterate to them that they should do this mandate about ensuring
03:17 that there's conservation during the El Niño period.
03:20 Yeah.
03:21 Can you talk about the losses?
03:22 How big of a problem is that?
03:24 You said that the target is to cap it at 20 percent.
03:30 Does that mean it is higher than 20 percent now?
03:34 And then maybe what does it take to address that?
03:38 I mean, of course, you need to spend, right, to fix the pipes and put the new ones.
03:43 But what is the situation first?
03:46 In our country, our key performance index, it should not be lower than 20 percent non-revenue
03:53 water.
03:54 OK.
03:55 But in other countries, their KPIs is much lower.
03:59 Single digit.
04:00 Single digit.
04:01 OK.
04:02 Again, just like our developed countries, neighboring countries, their KPIs are about
04:08 8 percent, 6 percent.
04:10 That's our KPI for the non-revenue water.
04:13 Now for our country, it's 20 percent.
04:16 But beyond that, there's already a lot of losses.
04:19 Just imagine for one household, you're wasting about 30 percent of your water.
04:29 So you can easily save money for that water district alone.
04:37 And how do we do this?
04:38 We have to ensure that, number one, the source, there must be enough treatment facility for
04:45 the source so that when it rains, it must be continuously treated.
04:53 Sometimes the water becomes muddy.
04:56 So on the part of the transmission lines, we have to ensure that there are no leakages
05:03 and the pressure should still be of the same pressure up to the end.
05:11 Because if the pressure is low, then there's also water loss that goes with it.
05:17 So these are the things that we have to address.
05:21 But it entails a lot of capitalization for the water districts.
05:25 That's why we're here.
05:26 Louie's here.
05:27 Together with the water districts, we always try to finance this.
05:32 How big of a problem is it?
05:33 How much money does it take to fix it?
05:36 Because the first time I've heard about this was, I think, maybe 10 years ago.
05:39 So long before your time.
05:41 And I've heard some water districts say that in their areas, because of age, it's been
05:50 many decades before then that they haven't really put in new pipes.
05:55 So of course, over time, these things leak.
05:59 But it would take something like in the area of billions really to replace this.
06:05 What's your assessment now?
06:08 How much does it take really to bring that out?
06:11 What's the target, first of all?
06:12 20%, you said.
06:14 When can we achieve that?
06:15 What's the timetable?
06:16 And how much money do we need to invest?
06:20 On the part of Louie, technically, we have the engineering.
06:23 And based on our capital investment, we're looking at about 30,000 pesos per household
06:29 connection.
06:30 So that's our rule of thumb in terms of capitalizing for that.
06:34 And part of that is ready.
06:35 A big part of that is to ensure that there's lesser non-revenue water.
06:42 So that's the, if more households, there are more households that we have to...
06:46 As simple as that?
06:47 As simple as that.
06:48 If we can have that kind of computation.
06:51 So that's how we compute it.
06:53 But it's not as simple as that, though.
06:56 Because on the point source, on the source of water, sometimes we have to ensure that,
07:03 because we have to look at the number of growing population.
07:05 Sure.
07:06 So the source also, we have to also capitalize on that.
07:09 We have to look for additional sources.
07:11 That's why now it is our call that we're asking everyone, all the water districts, if they
07:16 can, there must be enough scale for all of them by developing a big bulk source, some
07:24 of which are the rivers.
07:27 And just like now, there's a very good model that we have now, which is there in Bulacan
07:35 bulk water.
07:36 And we would like to duplicate that also here in Cavite, there in Maragondon, and in other
07:42 areas, we're in a group of water districts will be able to invest in one source of water.
07:54 So there'll be a continuing source of water for all of them.
07:57 And I think that is the best capital that our government should put in ensuring the
08:05 water security.
08:07 It's just like putting a big highway, that when it's already there, everybody can already
08:13 use it at an optimum.
08:15 Earlier, you were talking about the Pampanga or the water basin, one of the things that
08:20 you mentioned.
08:22 What is the vision there?
08:23 What provinces would it serve?
08:27 How many households will benefit?
08:30 And then when can we start using it?
08:31 What's the plan?
08:33 The plan, we have been talking together with the Department of the Public Works and Highways.
08:39 Okay.
08:40 They're your partner for that.
08:41 National Irrigation Authority and Water Resource Management Office, in which it's together
08:47 with the DNR.
08:48 We are under the DNR together with the National Water Resource Board, Laguna Lake Development
08:53 Authority and MWSS.
08:55 We have been talking together on how to develop the Central Luzon River Basin.
09:01 So that's our vision that during the term of the president, hopefully it can already
09:09 happen.
09:10 So we're looking at a timeline of until four years or five years.
09:13 Are we at the feasibility study stage?
09:15 Are we actually groundbreaking already?
09:18 What's the status on that?
09:19 There's already the feasibility study.
09:23 There's also the proposal now in Congress.
09:26 We are talking now about the right of way issues.
09:29 Okay.
09:30 A new law to-
09:31 The right of way issues and the funding, that continuous funding that was there.
09:36 So that's the plan now.
09:37 I think the president even wants it to.
09:40 He had visited Pampanga and that became his topic and issue that he wants to develop.
09:46 Again, this is, I've been saying earlier, this is about to develop the domestic water,
09:50 irrigation, agriculture, and also for the possible hydro supply.
09:56 And then compared to what you were saying a while ago about Bulacan's bulk water source,
09:59 how big or how does it compare, this Pampanga project?
10:04 Is that going to be bigger than the one that you were referring to earlier?
10:07 Is it going to serve more people?
10:08 The Bulacan bulk water supply is actually using the rivers of Agat.
10:14 And because of that, they're able to serve about more than 20 water districts.
10:22 Okay.
10:23 And LGUs that we would like to replicate.
10:27 Because the value that they're getting only is about nine pesos per cubic meter.
10:34 And that's the kind of capital that we only want for our socialized households.
10:43 So that's what we want to replicate in other areas in our country.
10:48 So if there are bulk water supplies that we can develop, we are now in the process of
10:53 developing that also in Cavite, there in Maragondon.
10:57 But we are now still in the process of developing the source.
11:02 What's intriguing, I remember from your interview with Manila Times, you were saying that in
11:06 Masbate, your home province, that you had this, I guess, catchment facility that, I
11:12 don't know if it was for your household or for your city that tied you over during the
11:18 dry season, and then you were able to use the rainwater you caught for the lean months.
11:25 Can you talk about that?
11:26 Because you said earlier, the more vulnerable areas of the country really are some of the
11:30 islands, right, without any water source.
11:32 Actually, because of, I would say, because of necessity, Filipinos are very resilient.
11:42 So they have to have the necessary foresight of what will happen during the dry season.
11:48 So because there's a lot of rains, it's just, it's a common way of doing it in the provinces
11:56 that in every household, they have water tanks.
12:00 So when it rains, the water from the roof goes directly to the tanks.
12:06 And that water can sustain them during the dry season.
12:10 And that helped me when I was young.
12:13 That helped me, we have two big tanks in our house, and not only during the dry season,
12:20 but even during the rainy season, we have enough water for the household.
12:25 In dry season especially, we don't feel any, we don't feel the pitch, so to speak, of the
12:33 dry season because of that enough storage.
12:35 I think it is a common sense of doing, how you want to ensure that there's enough water
12:45 for your household.
12:47 I also went to, I've seen in my eyes, and it was also intimated to me that in Jakarta,
13:00 all of their houses, they have their storage tanks.
13:05 I think all the members of our population, if they really want to secure their households,
13:13 they should have their storage tanks.
13:15 And that's very practicable.
13:17 Rather than, that's also their individual way of contributing to ensure that they're
13:21 helping their own households for security, for water security.
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