CLARK FREEPORT – An aircraft commissioned by the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) started last Tuesday bombarding with sacks of iodized salt the cloud formations over three dams to induce rains and increase water volumes in the dams.
The BSWM, which is under the Department of Agriculture (DA), said the cloud seeding was done over the Ipo, La Mesa and Angat dams which supply the potable water needs of Metro Manila and irrigate thousands of rice fields in Central Luzon.
This, even as the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) said it would temporarily cut off irrigation water supply to rice plantations in Bulacan and Pampanga effective May 16 amid ebbing water level in the dams.
The BSWM said in a report it used a BN-2 Islander aircraft to bombard clouds with salt, a process known as cloud seeding, and induce rain. The aircraft took off from the Plaridel airport in Bulacan with 25 sacks of iodized salt.
BSWM project officer Mary Joy David said each of the 25 sacks contained 25 kilos of iodized salt.
A report from the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System Angat-Umiray Transbasin operation division manager Ted Elipio said that as of the other day, the water level at the Angat Dam was at only 176 meters.
He noted this was way below the 214-meter spilling level of the dam during heavy rains. He recalled, however, that the situation was worse in 2010 when the dam’s level dipped to only 157 meters.
Meanwhile, the NWRB said that at present, it has continued to release irrigation water from Angat Dam to Bulacan and Pampanga rice fields at the rate of 10 cubic meters per second or about 864 liters per day. Unless the water level in the dams go up, however, irrigation would be cut off by May 16, it said.
Angat Dam is the source of about 96 percent of potable water for Metro Manila through the Maynilad and Manila Water firms.
In the first quarter of this year, Angat Dam also started to supply potable water to Bulacan folk under the Bulacan Bulk Water Supply Project Stage 1.
This project covers San Jose Del Monte, Santa Maria, Marilao, Meycauayan, Obando, and Bocaue.
