The combined yield of SCWD’s spring sources determined through flow measurement earlier today, April 24, 2020 was nowhere near ideal to supply the ever-growing demand for potable water in the City, but being able to measure it is a nice place to start.

Computations show promising figures as far as production is concerned, registering a slight increase from 115 lps on Monday, April 20 to 117 lps today. But nobody is certain if the trend would continue or if Sorsogon City would again see a steady decline in production of its five springs once temperatures rise in the coming months.

In its early days, Sorsoguenos’ thirst for drinking water was quenched by spring water supplied by these springs which converge at the Break Pressure (BP) Chamber 1, with transmission lines going to the 950 cu m Macabog Reservoir on one side and to the 1800 cu m Baribag Reservoir (via BP 2) on the other side. Sorsogon Water District’s served barangays more than 30 years ago only span from barangays Pangpang and Macabog in the what is now the West District, to barangays Bibincahan and Balogo in the East District. Bacon District barangays came in in the late 2000s.

Fast forward to 2020 and approximately 14,000 concessionaires later, any reduction in spring sources production was surely felt even as the SCWD and PrimeWater partnership have developed additional deepwells (14) and bulk water sources (2).

What is certain, though, is that the SCWD Management has set the gears in motion to arrive at a contingency measure as early as now, even before Sorsogon City’s perennial problem on water shortage is felt, especially at areas which are solely (OLV and Imperial, Pangpang) or heavily (OLV and SPPVS, Bibincahan) dependent on spring sources production. From SCWD’s end, being able to witness the real status of its water sources is the first major step in coming up with a functional contingency plan.

Today’s joint assessment of spring sources and facilities at the upland portion of Sitio Bagong Sirang, Barangay Macabog was done by Engr. Alejandro L. Alama, Charmaine B. Mandane RMT, Wilfredo T. Doctor Jr. and Renato M. Lirio, for SCWD; and Engr. Mark Anthony L. Añonuevo, Engr. Jerome Buen, Engr. Jupel A. Operio, Antero Jetajobe and Adolfo Jetajobe, for PrimeWater.