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Citing decades of neglect of the country’s dams and other vital water infrastructure that have been blamed for the severe flash flooding that engulfed Cagayan and Isabela over the weekend, Senator Imee Marcos lobbied Congress to move forward with passing a law. to rapidly upgrade state water supply facilities. and resources.
Marcos said Sunday that the wrath of the last Typhoon Ulysses that hit the country on November 12 “brought back the horror of Typhoon Ondoy 2009,” noting that concerned government agencies may have learned to prepare ahead of time “but did not reach the magnitude of disaster. “
As the senator introduced legislation to improve the dams, authorities rejected allegations of premature discharges of water from dams in northern and central Luzon, with water from the dam exacerbating flooding caused by heavy and uninterrupted rains. of Ulysses; and before that, another five meteorological alterations.
The National Administration of Irrigation-Integrated Irrigation System of the Magat River (NIA-Mariis) insisted on Sunday that it had notified residents of the Isabela and Cagayán Provinces in Region II “of their discharge of water from the Magat Reservoir to maintain the safe water level of the Magat Dam. on Monday, November 9, 2020, two days before Typhoon Ulysses (Vamco) made landfall for the first time in Patnanungan, Quezon, at 10:30 pm on November 11, 2020 ”.
The agency said, however, that “the heavy downpour brought by Typhoon Ulysses that [triggered] massive flooding in many parts of the country … also pushed the water level of the Magat dam beyond normal. “
Massive flooding in parts of Cagayan and Isabela caused devastation that had not been seen in 45 years, according to Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba, as President Duterte visited the area.
An update at 6 am Sunday (November 15) of the NIA-Mariis-DRD flood forecast and early warning dam operations showed that the water level in the Magat Dam reservoir “is now at 192, 15 meters, which is 0.85 meters close to its spill level of 193 meters above mean sea level. “The reservoir inlet is 1,020 cubic meters per second (cm) and the outlet is 834 cubic meters per second ( cms) with a spillway gate open to two meters, the agency added.
The NIA-Mariis stated that there has been a policy to do calibrated opening pre-releases of dam gates “before a typhoon or unusual weather disturbances occur” to “minimize, if not prevent, large discharges from the Magat dam before the spill level is reached. “
He noted that prior to Typhoon Ulises, five typhoons had affected Isabela and the Cagayan valley and almost all of Luzon, causing continuous rains for almost two months. During this period, he added, “two gates or the equivalent of four meters were opened to reduce the containment of water in the Magat Reservoir. However, as the water inflow to our Magat watersheds continually increases, additional gates must be gradually opened to maintain the safe level of the Magat Reservoir. Continued rains upstream from the Magat Dam contributed to high inflows, while the rivers along the Cagayán River had also reached their maximum capacity, causing the river to overflow, not only in the Cagayán River but in its areas. adjacent ”.
However, Infrawatch PH coordinator Terry Ridon stated that based on his review of dam openings in two weeks prior to Ulysses, “Magat did not do enough water extraction 2-3 days prior to Ulysses, as required by its protocol, because their doors were not even open 3-4 days before landing. “
Unimproved dams
Meanwhile, Senator Marcos noted that “the 38-year-old Magat dam and other old dams have not been upgraded in decades, the forests in the surrounding watersheds have been stripped away, and therefore the Magat would have collapsed under the deluge of the Typhoon Ulysses if there were unpublished water. “
He warned that “the cycle of calamities, panic and suffering will continue unless we improve our water infrastructure.”
The senator said she will present corrective legislation to improve the country’s facilities and water resources and, at the same time, “reorganize its management amid the challenges of population growth and climate change.”
Marcos foresees that “the water crisis will be the crisis of the next decades: floods, shortages, need for infrastructure to collect rain. It is urgent that we face the challenges as soon as possible. “
With a population of around 12 million and still growing, Metro Manila will need “a larger water supply than the 52-year-old Angat dam can provide,” he added.
In addition to upgrading existing dams, the senator is interested in reviving flood control projects, citing “the unfinished Parañaque spillway conceived in the 1970s and the aborted Laguna Lake dredging in 2011, both of which could mitigate flooding in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces “.
