Cloud seeding resumes over Magat, watersheds

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Cloud seeding has resumed over Magat Dam and its watersheds as its water level is becoming critical even as the demand for irrigation in its service areas continues.

Engineer Wilfredo Gloria, chief of the dam’s reservoir engineering and operations division, said the continuous drop in the dam’s water elevation has prompted them to restart cloud seeding operations.

“The reservoir has registered 161 meters of stored water since Monday, or one meter from its critical level,” Gloria said. The 160-meter elevation is the dam’s minimum operational level to generate electricity for the Luzon grid.

Gloria said the cloud seeding is being conducted by the National Irrigation Administration-Magat River Integrated Irrigation System (NIA-MRIIS) and SN Aboitiz Power (SNAP) with the help of the Philippine Air Force.

SNAP, a Filipino-Norwegian consortium, owns and operates the Magat Dam’s power facility, while the irrigation component is still under the NIA.

Cloud seeding over the dam has been suspended since April 27 after a privately owned light plane commissioned for it crashed in a cornfield in Bagabag town in this province.

The crash killed the pilot and three cloud seeding specialists of the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Soils and Water Management.

As a result of the crash, the Agriculture department tapped Air Force aircraft and personnel for the cloud seeding and barred its employees from taking part in the activity here and elsewhere. 

“Air Force personnel are more trained for such operation and their (aircraft are) bigger than those owned by private companies,” said provincial agriculture officer Celerina Miranda.

Meanwhile, NIA-MRIIS officials said they were forced to provide irrigation to thousands of farmlands in Isabela on rotational basis to prevent the dam from reaching its critical water level.

Besides irrigating at least 80,000 hectares of farmlands in Isabela and parts of Cagayan and Quirino, the dam also contributes at least 380 megawatts to the Luzon grid, the second biggest power provider among hydro-dams in Luzon.

Lawyer Mike Hosillos, SNAP vice president for corporation communications, earlier said they have been operating at a reduced capacity since May due to the continued drop in water reserves.

The Isabela electric cooperative has warned of rotating power outages once the dam’s water level becomes critical.

The dam last shut down in March 2010 when its water level dropped to 152.7 meters, affecting the entire Luzon grid. Its irrigation facility faces temporary shutdown if the water elevation reaches below 150 meters.

Located along the Isabela-Ifugao border, the more than three-decade-old Magat Dam, once Asia’s biggest hydroelectric dam, had its all-time low of 149 meters in July 1991.