Dam if you do..

You know the rest. Pun absolutely intended.

Attention has now focused on the numerous dams the country has, especially up North.

One river in particular, the Agno river, has no less than three dams that harness its power for electricity and irrigation. It starts in Benguet province and meanders its way towards the Lingayen Gulf, passing numerous towns along the way, as dictated by ancient practice that civilizations start beside bodies of water.

So when typhoon Pepeng decided to make a U-turn and literally park over Northern Luzon, an enormous volume of water from relentless rainfall starts to fill the first dam, then the next, and finally San Roque dam in Pangasinan. Here is where the trouble starts.

Dams have to release water when the levels are too high. Overflowing dams are in danger of breaking, causing a catastrophe on downstream cities and towns. So when the operators of San Roque dam decide to open their flood gates, the river just could not handle both the water from the torrential rains and the spillway from the dam.

As a result, the river overflows, dikes break, and flooding occurs. Just like a fully open faucet filling a bucket with several holes. Eventually, there just aren't enough holes to prevent the bucket from overflowing.

And so the finger-pointing from the affected local governments has begun in earnest. Especially with the threat of another howler coming to either blow them away or drench them silly.

Again, mistakes are there to learn from. In light of what has happened to Pangasinan, Tarlac and Pampanga, a new protocol regarding the release of water should be written. The decision as to when to open the spillways should err on the side of over-cautiousness rather than by-the-book parameters.

If a storm is expected to bring rains, as it always does lately, then the operators should already partially open the floodgates to accommodate the rains. I don't think anyone can argue with that. The San Roque dam also serves to irrigate farmland so this would probably be even welcomed by the farmers, as long as their crops do net get swamped!

For now, fault would seem to lie squarely on the dam operators. But there are other factors that caused the flooding like informal settlers along waterways, indiscriminate throwing of garbage and a poor sewage system.

Again, we go back to urban, or rural, planning. The key is to learn. If we refuse, then we have no right to complain when the waters rise once again!