BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – The Magat Dam is back to its critical level despite the absence of rainfall since last week, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said yesterday.
Saturnino Tenedor, chief of NIA’s dam flood forecasting and instrumentation detection section, said the water elevation at the dam’s reservoir was 192.09 meters as of 2 p.m. yesterday.
The water level is considered critical when it reaches 190 meters. Dam authorities may release water through its floodgates to avoid reaching the spilling level of 193 meters.
Tenedor, however, gave assurance that the situation is still under control.
He said there was no release of water as of yesterday, allaying fears of possible occurrence of floods along the dam’s downstream areas in northern Isabela areas and some towns in the Mallig region.
Tenedor earlier said that should there be a need to release excess waters, it would be in controlled amounts to avoid flooding.
Besides irrigating at least 80,000 hectares of farmlands in Isabela, the 30-year-old Magat Dam also generates 360 megawatts of power for the Luzon grid.