800 houses, businesses in Antipolo City lose water as main line breaks

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Around 800 households and establishments lost water after a main water line broke in Antipolo City on Tuesday.

In a 24 Oras report from Katrina Son, at around 10:00 a.m., a loud blast was heard along Marcos Highway in Barangay Bagong Nayon after a pipeline burst. As a result, hundreds of residences and businesses lost access to water.

CCTV footage showed how the portion of road underneath an overpass appeared to have been ripped apart. Brown-colored water began gushing from the hole. Bystanders retreated from the rushing water.

A few minutes later, it appeared as if there was a pond in the middle of the road.

No one was hurt during the incident. However, it caused heavy traffic in the area.

Workers from Manila Water arrived an hour later to begin fixing the pipe. The water firm said that there was a “breakage” in one of the pipelines.

“Ang tawag namin doon ay breakage… meron tayong isang main line na nagkaroon ng breakage kaninang umaga…300 millimeters ito, or 0.3 meters ‘yung diameter. Kaya medyo nagkaroon ng pagbaha ng tubig doon sa area,” said Manila Water Corporate Communications Affairs Group Director Jeric Sevilla said.

(We call it a breakage… we have one main line where a breakage occurred this morning… Its diameter was 300 millimeters or 0.3 meters. That is why there was flooding like that in the area.)

An hour after workers came, the water was contained. The area still needs to be cleaned and cleared to ease the flow of traffic and give way to emergency repairs.

By 3:00 p.m., the line was isolated and the flooding had stopped. However, workers need to dig into the ground and pinpoint how large the damage is.

“Sa ngayon, hindi pa natin matukoy kung ano talaga ang sanhi nitong breakage,” Sevilla said. (For now, we have not found the cause of the breakage.)

One of the possible culprits was the sudden increase of pressure, vibration, and the weight of vehicles on top of the lines.

Since the valves needed to be closed, hundreds of people lost water temporarily.

Several parts of Barangay San Jose and Barangay Bagong Nayon in the Cogeo district were affected. A hospital also lost water.

To address the situation, Manila Water sent a water tanker to the hospital, and two other tankers to the affected barangays.

The water concessionaire is hoping to complete repairs within 24 hours of the pipes being exposed. However, this could take longer depending on the severity of the damage.

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—Jean Mangaluz/RF, GMA News