San Roque denies any water release
Posted on June 1, 2003 - Filed Under News |
SAN MANUEL—It would take nine more typhoons as strong as typhoon ‘ 'Chedeng’ before the San Roque Multi-Purpose Dam Project here would spill water to the lowlands.
The statement made by retired Admiral Virgilio Marcelo, vice president of the San Roque Power Corporation only showed how vast the reservoir is of the San Roque dam, built at $1.2 billion which is the biggest of its kind in southeast Asia, second biggest in Asia and the 11th biggest in the world.
This was the reason why Marcelo dubbed as unfounded and without basis wild charges blaming the San Roque dam for the alleged unprecedented flood in Pangasinan the past few days.
The truth of the matter is the San Roque dam has not made any releases at all nor did the Binga dam open its spillway gate to allow excess water to flow into San Roque’s reservoir, Marcelo said.
This was corroborated by Alex Palado, chief of the Agno Flood Forecasting Office based at San Roque, at the height of typhoon “Chedeng” to allay the fear of the people of Pangasinan.
Since the rains spawned by typhoon ‘Chedeng”, the reservoir was estimated to have impounded 33 million cubic meters of rainwater which is not even enough to sustain its needs, Marcelo said.
“Just imagine what could have happened to various communities in the lowlands if this big volume of rainwater flowed downstream of the Agno river,” he said.
At the height of the typhoon, the portion of the Agno river after the dam was dry, Marcelo claimed. But he said the portion of the Agno river below the dam is being fed with water from various rivers, like Viray-Dipalo in San Nicolas and Banilla in San Quintin.
He added there is one river draining into Urdaneta City that is not connected to the Agno river. This is the Toboy river in the north which is connected to the Macalong river and San Jose river in Urdaneta city that flows into Sinucalan river in Sta. Barbara.
Urdaneta is too far away from Agno river to be affected by any water discharges, he said.
The Sinucalan river is also the converging point of run-off water coming from the Bued river whose water flows into Aloragat river, then to Cayanga river and Angalacan river.
Marcelo called on the people of Pangasinan not to worry because the San Roque dam was really doing one of the purposes for which it was intended—to prevent floods.
Aside from this, it is now generating 345 megawatts for the Luzon grid and is helping bring about improved quality of water for the farms.
But sadly, its irrigation component was not yet built because the creditor stopped its release of of the loan of the country on account of the opposition of some people of the Cordilleras not affected though by the proposed project.
The government is seeking P2 billion loan from Japan to fund the irrigation component that would irrigate 75,000 hectares of land from Pangasinan, part of Nueva Ecija and northern Tarlac.
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