Pantabangan, other dams face inspection for ‘Big One’

CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines – Amid fears of the occurrence of a powerful earthquake, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has ordered agency engineers to inspect the Pantabangan Dam and other dams in the country to ensure their structural integrity.

NIA administrator Ricardo Visaya said concerned NIA personnel were trained on how to determine the preparedness of dams and they would soon undertake an engineering assessment of all dams, including Pantabangan.

“With talks of this Big One, we will look into the structural integrities of our dams to ensure the people are safe,” Visaya said during his visit at the Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation Systems (UPRIIS) office in this city.

UPRIIS is the country’s largest national irrigation system, which operates Pantabangan Dam.

Pantabangan is the country’s largest dam. It supplies irrigation to over 100,000 hectares of farmlands in Central Luzon. The dam is also used for flood control, water supply for domestic and industrial purposes, fish conservation and tourism.

According to former NIA administrator Antonio Nangel, Pantabangan Dam can survive an Intensity 10 earthquake because it was “sturdily built.” 

Nangel said the Pantabangan Dam withstood the magnitude 7.7 Luzon earthquake that struck on July 16,1990. It had no damage to its reservoir area and other structures.

The dam consists of two zoned-earth filled dams: the main dam and the Aya Dam. Its 8,420-hectare reservoir area has a water storage capacity of 1.75 billion cubic meters for irrigation and power generation. Its watershed area covers 90,900 hectares.