Prioritise water for consumption

The Sirinumu Dam in Central Province has now reached the point at which a decision could be made to prioritize water for consumption and reduce releases for power generation.

Water PNG Ltd Chief Executive Officer James Young says in light of the prolonged dry season water levels have significantly dropped, with recent statistics showing the Dam at 53-percent capacity.

The extreme El Niño events have placed water and power utilities under pressure at this time as both entities depend on the same water from the Sirinumu Dam.

Young recently indicated that the dam has now reached 180-thousand Mega Litres Emergency Conservation Level.

“We start to come into what we call an emergency conservation level which really means from that point the drinking water supply starts to take precedence over power generation.” Young said.

He added that if combined releases for water supply and hydro power generation continue at the current rate, the dam would reach its last-resort reserve of 50-thousand Mega Litres by mid-July 2027, placing Port Moresby’s drinking water supply at serious risk.

Young in a statement indicated that reducing hydropower releases is a challenging government decision and requires funding for additional fuel, as well as transmission and generation upgrades that take time to deliver.

He explained that if releases for power generation are reduced now to the level needed for water supply, Port Moresby is expected to have sufficient drinking water through the 2027 dry season, even if the coming wet season is poor.

“The dam will begin to fall below the level at which it becomes a bit more difficult to take water out so as it falls down the water quality deteriorates and the pressure in the system deteriorates so it becomes harder to produce electricity but also harder for us to treat and distribute that water.” Young said.

He stated that there are no easy solutions as both utilities are managing ageing infrastructure built for a much smaller city.

Meantime, the CEO further noted that the utilities are working with Kumul Consolidated Holdings Ltd and the government on possible options and are emphasising need for customers cooperation in using water wisely.