Pangasinan’s San Roque Dam breaches spilling level

URDANETA CITY, Pangasinan, Philippines — The water level at San Roque Dam breached the mandatory spilling level yesterday, but the National Power Corp. (NPC) clarified that all spillway gates remain closed.

Teresa Serra, NPC dam management division manager, said opening the spillway would put communities in San Manuel, San Nicolas, Tayug, Asingan, Sta. Maria, Rosales, Villasis, Sto. Tomas, Alcala, Bautista, Bayambang, San Carlos City, Mangatarem, Urbiztondo, Aguilar, Bugallon, Labrador and Lingayen, all in Pangasinan, on heightened alert.

Serra said the NPC has no current plans to open the spillway gates, but urged dam managers to closely monitor the continuing rise in the reservoir level and high inflow of water.

According to Serra, the reservoir’s water elevation reached 280.52 meters as of noon yesterday, with the level rising at an average rate of 0.17 meter per hour.

Inflow into the dam has climbed to 920.26 cubic meters per second (cms) as it receives the releases from the upstream Binga Dam.

Serra said any opening of the San Roque Dam spillway would send additional water downstream through the Agno River.

In Bulacan, Serra said the water elevation of Angat Dam was at 199.01 meters, or 12.99 meters below its normal rainy season high water level of 212 meters.

On Sunday, the Bulacan provincial disaster risk reduction and management office said both Ipo and Bustos dams were discharging water to its downstream river system at 34.5 cms and 225 cms, respectively.

The downstream river system affects the towns of Bustos, San Rafael, Pulilan, Plaridel, Calumpit and Hagonoy as well as Baliwag City.

Meanwhile, the Office of Civil Defense yesterday estimated the damage from the heavy rains brought by the enhanced southwest monsoon to be at P6.1 billion for infrastructure and P2.3 billion for agriculture.

OCD administrator Harold Cabreros said at least 6,100 families were preemptively evacuated, as 2.4 million families were affected. — Ramon Efren Lazaro, Pia Lee-Brago