# Dry Spell and Water Shortages



## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

This seems to happen every year during the dry season but it might get worse due to the El Nino effect and something to think about if you plan on retiring to the Philippines and that's limited access to water in larger cities or better yet your own water well. 

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/new...st-throughout-summer/story/?top_picks&order=3

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/new...ritical-level-pagasa/story/?top_picks&order=5

On Luzon or Laguna de Bay that the water dropped quickly and in our backyard so for sure, it's being used it went from nearly flooding 3 months ago to its normal bank level and I wasn't expecting to drop that fast and our soil is now like concrete it's bone dry.


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

Sure seemed as if the water level dropped faster than normal in our well this year. Could be a long dry summer.

Fred


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## Tukaram (Dec 18, 2014)

We ran out of water a couple years ago. After one person showered you have to wait an hour or so for the next person to shower... kind of sucked. We had so much rain this year so I think (hope) we will be ok. We have 2 houses sharing one shallow well.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

We are suppling about 40 houses from our deep well so hopefully we will be ok. A worry was there was going to be a subdivision built next to us. When that happens they can suck a lot of water and suddenly all local shallow wells dry up.


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## expatuk2016 (Mar 20, 2016)

The Water problem ! I live in Los Banos on the edge of laguna De Bay , and the water Level is dropping very fast !
Where i live there is a large building built on a foundation of small boulders the highest water level 2yrs ago was just above the third row of boulders from the top ! Today is the level just above the bottom row of boulders !
The height from the bottom row to the Third row from the top is approx 12 ft ! Thats a lot of water thats missing !
Lots of plants starting to grow now as the water recedes .
We only use well water for washing clothes ( hand pump ) noticed a while back we had some banana trees in the back garden and a Guava tree but all started dying! Wife said thats normal, but then i realised that all the water from washing clothes with the soap powder etc was draining into the garden in the direction of the trees !
We got our builder handyman to dig a trench and concrete it and was rerouted into a pit just below our sea wall !
The banana trees have gone but the Quava tree is recovering !
Our mains water is very erratic here espec at weekends ! Sometimes no water at all for hours!
Latest problem is green algae in the hose pipes i clear it once a week by back flushing it with the help of a rawlplug
( wallplug for our American friends &#55358;&#56611; ) never drink water from the tap, and only drink wilkins or absolute and buy water in containers for boiling for coffee and cooking .


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## JRB__NW (Apr 8, 2015)

I live on a hill above Cebu and they have been trucking water in for months, as the wells no longer reach the water table. It will only get worse with this El Niño. And the roadway is getting badly damaged from the weight - you can see the lane going in is very bad and the one going out is fine (truck empty).


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Dry Season*



JRB__NW said:


> I live on a hill above Cebu and they have been trucking water in for months, as the wells no longer reach the water table. It will only get worse with this El Niño. And the roadway is getting badly damaged from the weight - you can see the lane going in is very bad and the one going out is fine (truck empty).


I heard this from another expat that lives on Mactan Island but he's stateside for vacation so I'm wondering if his well has any water because the city water doesn't run so well either.


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## Zep (Jun 8, 2017)

I would not even of thought there could be a water shortage until reading this. I get city water (not from a well) and assumed it would always flow. Not sure how anyone could get more info on this subject for their own local town. I am sure all will be silent until one day they cut it off.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*News*



Zep said:


> I would not even of thought there could be a water shortage until reading this. I get city water (not from a well) and assumed it would always flow. Not sure how anyone could get more info on this subject for their own local town. I am sure all will be silent until one day they cut it off.


Zep I wasn't paying attention or watching the local news until my son told me about the water shortage and it could affect many especially in the city area's because they get their water from these Dams and all the Dams supplying Manila are at critical levels.


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

M.C.A. said:


> Zep I wasn't paying attention or watching the local news until my son told me about the water shortage and it could affect many especially in the city area's because they get their water from these Dams and all the Dams supplying Manila are at critical levels.


Hey Mark, that's not a good thing, imagine all the extra water trucks adding to the congestion. I hope our deep well is going ok, not heard any thing from the tenant so far fingers crossed for the move at the end of April. The locals tell us that all the underground water comes from the mountains and hills to the east.

Cheers, Steve.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Water Shortages During Dry Spells*



bigpearl said:


> Hey Mark, that's not a good thing, imagine all the extra water trucks adding to the congestion. I hope our deep well is going ok, not heard any thing from the tenant so far fingers crossed for the move at the end of April. The locals tell us that all the underground water comes from the mountains and hills to the east.
> 
> Cheers, Steve.


Hi Steve, the water shortage areas are usually the same every year so if you haven't encountered this before you should be fine especially with mountain runoff water and living out in a provincial area, we are also surrounded by mountains I guess the big issue is that the weather pattern is much lower (dry season) so it's gonna be dry and hot for a couple of months it's like this every year but the water shortage at the beginning of the dry season is something new to me.

I have several trees and newly planted ones that will require water and the main reason we planted trees to help keep the heat down so something else to think about is plenty of shade around the home and yard area, when we didn't' have trees the grass would catch fire but now that I have so many large fruit trees the grass doesn't grow and the shade really helps plus the fruit is another plus.


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## xXEsPaNyoLAkoXx (Jan 24, 2019)

*xXEsPaNyoLAkoXx*



M.C.A. said:


> I guess the big issue is that the weather pattern is much lower (dry season) so it's gonna be dry and hot for a couple of months it's like this every year but the water shortage at the beginning of the dry season is something new to me.


It's like the Philippines was already affected by global warming. I have a friend in Pasig, Philippines also experiencing the same as you. They have water interruption and it's scheduled as per her. It's been 4 days that she has water interruption.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Large Cities*



xXEsPaNyoLAkoXx said:


> It's like the Philippines was already affected by global warming. I have a friend in Pasig, Philippines also experiencing the same as you. They have water interruption and it's scheduled as per her. It's been 4 days that she has water interruption.


Manila area is very densely populated and they are looking at adding more Dams we nearly flooded in our backyard this year so we did get plenty of rain but even I was taken off guard by this current water shortage so early, usually the water shortages are due to major pipeline upgrades and infrastructure projects. I did hear on the news recently that another water company Maynilad is opening up their water valve in order to help supply water to affected area's.


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## xXEsPaNyoLAkoXx (Jan 24, 2019)

*xXEsPaNyoLAkoXx*



M.C.A. said:


> Manila area is very densely populated and they are looking at adding more Dams we nearly flooded in our backyard this year so we did get plenty of rain but even I was taken off guard by this current water shortage so early, usually the water shortages are due to major pipeline upgrades and infrastructure projects. I did hear on the news recently that another water company Maynilad is opening up their water valve in order to help supply water to affected area's.


Sounds great if Maynilad would have a move on the situation. However, as I read on the news Maynilad and Manila water have issues. A lot of people suffer in the Philippines due to water interruption.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Laguna de Bay (Luzon)*



bigpearl said:


> Hey Mark, that's not a good thing, imagine all the extra water trucks adding to the congestion. I hope our deep well is going ok, not heard any thing from the tenant so far fingers crossed for the move at the end of April. The locals tell us that all the underground water comes from the mountains and hills to the east.
> 
> Cheers, Steve.


I have been trying to save my younger calamansi and guava trees, I lost two 15' santol trees, 3 smaller Avocado trees and a 100 foot Nara (rosewood) but while watering last night I noticed how much the lake has dropped it used to be level and now there's a ridge and it's visibly dropped from 20 -30 feet and it's been dropping fast and what remains in the wake what looks like paper from all the plant or algae it's in sheets. 

I've seen the lake much lower but not so early into the dry season but every year it's like this and now the grass in the back yard is dead and could be a fire hazard not for us but possibly our In-laws I planted so many trees that I have a huge buffer zone of no grass.

Laguna de Bay is a very shallow lake, to begin with, so I hope there are plans for more Dams.


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

Calamansi is something we miss here in Oz, hope you can save them Mark. We have to substitute with a little lime here or at times when no limes the Lisbon lemon that fruits prolifically, not the same though. As said I do hope we have plenty of water when we get back, love my garden and all it bears.
Not good by the sound of the water storage in your area, how is Taal holding up?

The seasons here in Oz have changed over the last 5 to 8 years,,,,, my property. While my King orchids flower religiously the third week of February the Pecans and other deciduous fruiting and non fruiting trees seem to have pushed the leaf fall up to 6 weeks later than normal. Even now I sit here looking at a very large Frangipani one month into Autumn and it still has the odd flower and no sign of leaves dropping. We are still swimming in the pool through the day, 28C. water temp. Our 3 dams are full and over flowing, our rainwater tanks are overflowing, this normally happened Jan/Feb, our wet season. Climate change or cyclic? Don't worry it's nice to see the views green instead of starting to brown off as they used to years ago especially as we are selling.

Gardening and water in PH. is going to be a learning curve for me as I am used to fertile land with enough water to make it happen, our land in PH. is beachfront and though plenty of trees is going to require plenty of work and yes water.

Cheers, Steve.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

bigpearl said:


> Calamansi is something we miss here in Oz, hope you can save them Mark. We have to substitute with a little lime here or at times when no limes the Lisbon lemon that fruits prolifically, not the same though. As said I do hope we have plenty of water when we get back, love my garden and all it bears.
> Not good by the sound of the water storage in your area, how is Taal holding up?
> 
> The seasons here in Oz have changed over the last 5 to 8 years,,,,, my property. While my King orchids flower religiously the third week of February the Pecans and other deciduous fruiting and non fruiting trees seem to have pushed the leaf fall up to 6 weeks later than normal. Even now I sit here looking at a very large Frangipani one month into Autumn and it still has the odd flower and no sign of leaves dropping. We are still swimming in the pool through the day, 28C. water temp. Our 3 dams are full and over flowing, our rainwater tanks are overflowing, this normally happened Jan/Feb, our wet season. Climate change or cyclic? Don't worry it's nice to see the views green instead of starting to brown off as they used to years ago especially as we are selling.
> ...


I need to keep up with the news I haven't heard anything about the Taal volcano it's not far from us though. When I was in the military I was a rescue crewman and we flew out to the middle of the Taal Volcano in 1985 I'll never forget it a lake within a lake but I'll bet that area is drying up also.

Land here is very sandy and gets hard like concrete when in severe drought.


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

M.C.A. said:


> I need to keep up with the news I haven't heard anything about the Taal volcano it's not far from us though. When I was in the military I was a rescue crewman and we flew out to the middle of the Taal Volcano in 1985 I'll never forget it a lake within a lake but I'll bet that area is drying up also.
> 
> Land here is very sandy and gets hard like concrete when in severe drought.


No mark I do not know the news either with regards to Taal, I only asked as it's in your back yard. I stayed there 7 or 8 years ago and did the whole tourist thing including the boat and the donkeys and remember thinking that "Wow" this place will always have plenty of water given the catchment area. Perhaps they are taking more than it gives. Like you I love the scenery and will definitely visit again,,,,, and haggle with the tourist vendors.

Cheers, Steve.


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## Tiz (Jan 23, 2016)

bigpearl said:


> No mark I do not know the news either with regards to Taal, I only asked as it's in your back yard. I stayed there 7 or 8 years ago and did the whole tourist thing including the boat and the donkeys and remember thinking that "Wow" this place will always have plenty of water given the catchment area. Perhaps they are taking more than it gives. Like you I love the scenery and will definitely visit again,,,,, and haggle with the tourist vendors.
> 
> Cheers, Steve.


Those poor little ponies. I took pity on them and walked. 
:deadhorse:


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

M.C.A. said:


> I need to keep up with the news I haven't heard anything about the Taal volcano it's not far from us though. When I was in the military I was a rescue crewman and we flew out to the middle of the Taal Volcano in 1985 I'll never forget it a lake within a lake but I'll bet that area is drying up also.
> 
> Land here is very sandy and gets hard like concrete when in severe drought.





Tiz said:


> Those poor little ponies. I took pity on them and walked.
> :deadhorse:


LOL, I was with 3 Filipinos and as we know they don't like to walk, one was even asking for a tricycle as she had never been on a donkey.

Cheers, Steve.


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## xXEsPaNyoLAkoXx (Jan 24, 2019)

M.C.A. said:


> I need to keep up with the news I haven't heard anything about the Taal volcano it's not far from us though. When I was in the military I was a rescue crewman and we flew out to the middle of the Taal Volcano in 1985 I'll never forget it a lake within a lake but I'll bet that area is drying up also.
> 
> Land here is very sandy and gets hard like concrete when in severe drought.


Taal Volcano, I don't have any news in that lake but my friend was in Tagaytay, Philippines last weekend. If you want to I can ask for a photo of it if they have.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Rain*



xXEsPaNyoLAkoXx said:


> Taal Volcano, I don't have any news in that lake but my friend was in Tagaytay, Philippines last weekend. If you want to I can ask for a photo of it if they have.


Thank you xXE... We finally got some pretty heavy thundershowers at least two days worth so everything is looking much better in our area of Luzon and my calamansi trees are now sprouting flowers so next will come the fruits the ground isn't hard anymore I was able to pull up several Gabie (taro roots) plants up or it was much easier I have a huge crop in my back yard.

Only thing I need relief from now is this incredible heat and now after the rains higher humidity.


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## xXEsPaNyoLAkoXx (Jan 24, 2019)

M.C.A. said:


> Thank you xXE... We finally got some pretty heavy thundershowers at least two days worth so everything is looking much better in our area of Luzon and my calamansi trees are now sprouting flowers so next will come the fruits the ground isn't hard anymore I was able to pull up several Gabie (taro roots) plants up or it was much easier I have a huge crop in my back yard.
> 
> Only thing I need relief from now is this incredible heat and now after the rains higher humidity.


Sounds perfect! I hope you'll have a fruitful harvest.


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## digitalchic (Jul 11, 2019)

I just moved in Tagaytay, been here for 5 months now. I only encountered a short water outage during Summer like an hour and it comes back - maybe they are filling the water station. 

I live in an area where there's resorts, gardens, bed and breakfast rentals, so far I have no problem with water. I use the laundry water for gardening. Now, it's rainy season, we fill the spare water tanks with rain water and I use it to wash my car, port area and other garden cleaning purposes. We have to try our best to conserve.


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