MORE NEWS, ISABELA

Magat Dam reaches critical level as heavy rains continue
BY JOAN CAPUNA

ILAGAN, Isabela – Incessant rains the past few days have caused water in the Magat Dam in Ramon town to reach dangerous levels, forcing authorities to release excess water to prevent damage to one of the country’s vital sources of power and irrigation.

Engineer Edwin Pasion, flood forecasting officer of the National Irrigation Administration said water had reached critical level of 193.29 meters, forcing them to continuously release water at a rate of 1,355 cubic meters per second.

“We are doing this to prevent the possibility that the water would go over the top. By that time, we would not be able to open the gate valves of the dam,” he told newsmen.

Pasion said failure to do so could lead to serious damage to the structure and flooding in the region’s downstream towns, especially in this province and neighboring Cagayan.

Reports said the valve outlets in the dam’s six spillways have been opened to prevent damage to the structure from accumulated water pressure as rains continued to hit the region since last week.

Once Asia’s first and biggest, the almost three-decade-old Magat Dam provides irrigation also to Quirino province.

Besides its irrigation component being managed by the NIA, the dam’s power generation, which the national government has sold to the SN Aboitiz Power consortium, provides at least 300 megawatts to the Luzon grid.

According to reports, among the towns that may be suffer flooding in case the dam overflows are Echague, Angadanan, Ilagan, Tumauini, Reina Mercedes, San Pablo, Naguilian, Cabagan, San Mateo, Aurora, Roxas and Mallig, all in Isabela; and Enrile, Solana, Iguig, Camalaniugan, Alcala, Gattaran, Lal-lo and Aparri, all in Cagayan.

The cities of Cauayan and Tuguegarao may also be affected.

Passion, however, said the danger of flooding in these areas has been minimized with the continuous steady release of excess water, to bring the dam’s water elevation to the safe level of 193 meters.

Passion said the Philippine Atmospheric, geo-physical, Astronomical Services Administration has noted that water in most tributaries of the Cagayan and Magat rivers is already receding, while the dam’s water “is now slowly going back to a more manageable level.”

Passion said continuous rainfall the past days was caused not be a low pressure area but by a cold front brought about by La Nina, which weather experts predict would last until the first quarter of next year.

Just a few months ago, during the long dry spell, the Magat Dam’s water level suffered a seven-year low of 159 meters, drying up nearly all farmlands in the region, especially in this country’s major rice and corn-producing province, which suffered nearly P1 billion in crop losses.