San Juan City Mayor and Metro Manila Council (MMC) President Francis Zamora announced on Friday, May 5, that there will be no dousing of water on passersby and motorists in celebration of its Wattah Wattah Festival on June 24 as part of the city government's efforts in conserving water amid the scorching heat being recorded in the country. During MMC's meeting held on Friday, the MMC discussed measures against the increasing cases of Covid-19, assessed the dry-run of the single-ticketing system, as well as measures to counter the looming water crisis due to El Niño. "Ngayon pa lang po inaannounce ko na na ang magiging selebrasyon ng ating Wattah Wattah Festival sa June 24 ay isang selebrasyon kung saang mapapakita din natin yung paggamit ng tubig ay bibigyan namin ng kahalagahan. Ibig sabihin we will have celebration that is not connected with water consumption (As of today I am already announcing that the celebration of our Wattah Wattah Festival on June 24 will be a celebration that will show how San Juaneños give importance to the proper use of water)," Zamora said. "In short, wala po tayong magiging basaan na nakasanayan ng mga nakaraang taon. Ang gagawin po natin ay ang Basbasan sa Makabagong San Juan na ginawa po natin noong kasagsagan ng Covid-19 kung saan ang ating patron na si San Juan Bautista ay inikot natin sa kabuuan ng lungsod upang basbasan ang ating mga mamamayan (In short, there will be no dousing of water that has become our tradition in the previous years. We will instead hold our Basbasan sa Makabagong San Juan which we have done before during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Basbasan sa Makabagong San Juan, our patron saint, St. John The Baptist, will be paraded around the city to bless our citizens)," he added. On May 2, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) raised the possibility of El Niño developing in the coming months from “watch” to “alert,” the second to the last stage of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Alert and Warning System. El Niño or warm phase is characterized by unusually warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. The weather phenomenon raises the likelihood of below-average rainfall conditions which might have adverse impact such as drought and dry spells in several parts of the country. “Recent conditions and model forecasts indicate that El Niño may emerge in the coming season, June-July-August, at 80 percent probability and may persist until the first quarter of 2024,” PAGASA said in its advisory. “With this development, the PAGASA El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Alert and Warning System is now raised to El Niño Alert,” it added. The next and final stage of the ENSO Alert System is activated when the climate phenomenon reaches “full-blown” El Niño status. The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) had earlier proposed that local government units (LGUs) should temporarily ban businesses and other activities with high water consumption such as car wash stations and the use of inflatable pools to conserve water. MWSS Deputy Administrator for Engineering and Technical Operations Group Jose Dorado Jr. identified car washes and the use of inflatable pools as high water consuming activities and said that the regulation of such activities and businesses should only be done when the water level in dams becomes critical. "They should only issue the ordinance if we are under the emergency mode. They should task resorts and other recreational facilities to use their water for more essential needs," Dorado said.