Daily Express Subscriber
Sign in to your account.

THE Water Department is keeping an eye on the distribution line leading to Country Heights Apartments to try and ease inconvenience caused by the erratic supply which the 6,000 plus occupants have been receiving for the past month.

A Department spokesman said an inspection was made of the bulk-meter and ground tanks for the Apartments, shortly after it learned what had been transpiring there.

“Our technicians cleared the air-locks which had formed in the pipes leading to the meter,” he said. 

“They confirmed that supply was reaching the meter, as well as the ground tanks nearby.” 

However, the strength of the supply was found to be weak, according to him.

“We are still trying to ascertain why this is happening. It is puzzling because the level at our R6B reservoir is high.”

He explained that the commercial and residential properties along Jalan Minintod-Bantayan, including Country Heights, drew their supply from this reservoir which was situated on the hill overlooking Donggongon.

“The sluice valve in the area will be adjusted, if need be, to regulate the supply to our consumers at the Apartments.”

If this failed to boost the pressure, then the agency might consider implementing a water-balancing exercise, according to him.

He said two of the agency’s tankers delivered treated water to Country Heights late last week to provide the apartment-dwellers with some temporary relief.

“Each of these tankers can contain as much as 33,000litres of water. A hose was extended from these vehicles to replenish the ground tanks.

“Our technicians have been asked to monitor the situation from time to time to ensure that the Apartments receives some water.”

A spokesman for Country Heights’ management company (MC) said that the property lost its main incoming supply on 10 separate occasions between April 1 and Monday.

He said the MC staff kept checking the gauge for its tanks, on and off, during this period only to find that there was ‘zero’ input to these receptacles.

“In the worst instances not a drop of water for between five to seven hours,” he said, adding that the supply to the property generally vanished from 10pm to 4am or 5am.

“When the supply was restored, the pressure was so bad, that in some cases, only between five to 10 per cent of water was entering our tanks.”

He said the needle on the pressure gauge only reached 0.2 or 0.4 bars in these instances.

The spokesman said multiple calls had been made to the Department’s Careline about the recent water woes in Country Heights.

“We have also written twice to the agency about this problem, since early April. The most recent letter was sent to last Wednesday (April 22). We are still waiting to receive an official response to our correspondence.”

The spokesman hoped the Department would consider increasing the pressure of the incoming supply to the property by at least 40 to 50 per cent.

“Should the pressure gauge reach around 1.2 to 1.5 bars, we will be assured that the supply is stable and we have enough water to cater to all those staying on the property.” 

Country Heights comprised of about 2, 096 units covering a total of 47 blocks, according to him.

The Department spokesman said a check of its records revealed that, earlier this month, the Apartments and other properties in the vicinity had been impacted by “a hiccup” involving the setting for a pump servicing its Moyog and Kasigui Treatment Plants.

“We restored the correct setting as soon as this irregularity came to light.” 

He said, under normal circumstances, Moyog produced about 185million litres of water daily (MLD) while Kasigui produced about 53 MLD.