Emergency repair teams from Zamboanga City Water District are now on stand-by in Vitali and Labuan to rush rehabilitation of broken transmission lines in the hope of restoring water service to the areas soonest.
Water transmission lines in Campo Uno in Labuan and Sitio Mialim in Vitali were destroyed by onrushing water resulting from the storm surge that hit the city late last week.
Engr. Carlos L. Perez Sr., Division Manager Pipeline and Leakage Control disclosed the teams were on site as early as last Sunday but were unable to proceed due to strong currents that overflowed in the two barangays.
Perez assured repair work on both downed lines can be completed in one-day time, weather permitting.
Meanwhile, Prime water engineers are looking at removing a huge boulder in the intake’s passageway as they move to normalize water supply in the city’s west coast.
Major portions of Prime Water’s service area are without water or suffering from low water pressure due to a drastic cutback in the production of the new water treatment plant in Patalon.
While it normally provides 1,800 cubic meters per hour (equivalent to 28,800 household per hour consumption), a massive landslide caused by torrential rains the past week has limited Prime’s production to 500 cubic liters per hour (equivalent to 8,000 household per hour consumption) causing a major water shortage in the area since Sunday.
In an emergency meeting yesterday, General Manager Leonardo Rey D. Vasquez ordered the re commissioning of all six production wells of the district to help augment the supply lack.
The six production wells combined capacity is close to 200 cubic meters per hour (equivalent to 3,200 household per hour consumption). Three of which are already underway namely Ayala I, Tulungatung II and Masiay.
Engr. Leo Espinosa, head of production wells disclosed the other three in Lupong, Baliwasan and Malasiga will be back on stream by today.
The district will also be fielding its fleet of water tankers to inject in areas affected.
The top management and the board of ZCWD are also looking at imposing a water rationing plan for the areas affected if the situation persists.
The recent inclement weather has wrought havoc to vital infrastructure in the west and east coast of the city including vital water pipeline of the district. (Ed Baños CREAS-ZCWD)
ZCWD PR 027 s. 2017
We are reminding customers to conserve and use water wisely. To report or for any concern please call ZCWD Customer Care Division 955 – 1007 to 1008; WTP 957 – 3651 loc. 100 from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM or visit our web page @ https://www.zcwd.gov.ph or FB page @https://www.facebook.com/ZamboangaCityWaterDistrict for updates.