CMWD moves to avert possible water shortage

MALOLOS CITY—The City of Malolos Water District (CMWD) is bracing itself to meet the increasing needs of its more than 230,000 population with its new board setting plans for service improvement and expansion.

The plans include the establishment of additional pumping stations and tree planting activities.

Engineer Bernie Buenaventura, a member of the CMWD board said that at present, the CMWD has over 45,000 in concessionaires, each consuming a minimum of 120 liters per day.

“Based on our current estimates, we are having weak water pressure in some areas especially during peak hours of the day,” he said noting that CMWD’s current pumping capability is not enough.

A licensed sanitary engineer, Buenaventura said that water demand is increasing everyday, while supply of ground water is slowly getting depleted.

This is due to aggressive developments of residential subdivisions in the city along with construction large malls, not to mention that fact that this city is the academic center of the province, he noted. An additional of at least 30,000 individuals will be added to the city population with the opening of classes in the second week of June.

Buenaventura said that open areas like rice lands were converted into residential subdivisions, with concrete roads. He said the concreting of open areas reduces natural replenishment of ground water.

Making the situation worse is that at least three pumping stations of the CMWD are not functional.

“We need not only to replace old pumping station, we must also improve water pumping capabilities,” he said.

As this developed, Buenaventura asked concessionaires to conserve water while they are hoping for the immediate implementation of the long delayed Bulacan Bulk Water Supply Project (Bulacan Bulk).

The said project is seen to address increasing water deficit in the city and depleting ground water supply.

Buenaventura also said that for a long time, the CMWD implemented no tree planting program that will help preserve ground water.

“I will propose tree planting program in the Board the soonest,” he said.