'Basyang' further improves Magat Dam water level

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Typhoon “Ba­syang” further improved the water level of the Magat Dam as the howler has dumped rains over Cagayan Valley since Tuesday.

Engineer Saturnino Tenedor of the National Irrigation Administration, which operates the dam’s irrigation facility, said the water level yesterday rose to 172.3 meters, within its normal level of 176.8 meters. 

Located along the Isabela-Ifugao border, the Magat Dam, once Asia’s biggest hydro-dam, has reached its safe water level of at least 170 meters after being in critical state for almost six months at the height of the long dry spell when it almost reached its all-time low of 149 meters. 

The dam’s improving water elevation, according to Tenedor, has resulted from regular rainfall over the dam’s watershed areas, Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya, since last month.

The more than three-decade-old Magat Dam has been the major source of irrigation for some 80,000 hectares of farmlands in Isabela, the country’s leading corn and rice-producing province.

The dam’s power facility, now owned and operated by SN Aboitiz Power, a Norwegian-Filipino consortium, generates a maximum of 360 megawatts, the second biggest power contributor to the Luzon grid among all the hydro-power dams in Luzon.