As monsoon rains persist over the western section of the country, the water level at Angat Dam in Bulacan continues to decline and is now close to its lowest recorded level yesterday.
Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration weather specialist Gener Quitlong said the southwest monsoon or “habagat” will bring cloudy skies with light to moderate rains over the western parts of Luzon and Visayas, including Metro Manila, until the weekend.
Light to moderate rains to at times heavy rains will prevail over Pangasinan, Cavite, western part of Batangas, Zambales, Bataan, Tarlac, Occidental Mindoro, northern Palawan, including Cuyo and Calamian Islands, Antique, and western part of Aklan.
While it has been rainy over Metro Manila and parts of Central Luzon in the past few days, the Angat watershed in the eastern portion of Bulacan failed to benefit from these rains.
As of yesterday morning, the Angat water level was at 158.15 meters, which is just 0.59 meters short of its 157.56-meter record-low registered on July 18, 2010.
National Water Resources Board Executive Director Sevillo David Jr. said that if the water level continues to decline, Angat Dam could breach its lowest recorded level by tomorrow.
However, David said the Technical Working Group, composed of NWRB, PAGASA, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, and water concessionaires Manila Water and Maynilad, decided to maintain the allocation of 36 cubic meters per second until the end of June and first week of July.
“Based on the PAGASA’s projections there are some rains due to the southwest monsoon this week until early next week. And hopefully this can extend to the Angat Dam area. We will closely monitor developments on the rainfall in Angat,” David said. (Ellalyn Ruiz)