Scientists blame dam operators for Luzon flood

By Gloria Esguerra Melencio

13 October 2009

MANILA- Dam owners and operators should be held accountable for the massive flooding in central and northern Luzon and landslides in the Cordillera region, according to scientists and environmentalists in a press conference on Monday.

They are one in saying that a class suit may be filed in court against them. San Roque Dam in Pangasinan, among others, is operated by the National Power Corporation (NPC).

Dr. Giovanni Tapang, chairperson of AGHAM, an organization of Filipino scientists, said the operators have allowed the water to reach at dangerously high levels and not acted on it sooner.

“Instead of releasing the waters earlier, gradually and in lesser volumes, they did it suddenly without adequate warning to the communities,” explained Tapang.

According to Tapang, the operators are thinking more of generating power and profit that they most likely have kept the water level as high as possible and have not placed primary importance to the safety of the nearby communities.

San Roque Dam is the biggest of the three dams and was designed to produce energy, supply water and control flood. It is supposed to have a flood maximum design of 13,000 cubic centimeters or equivalent to floods occurring every 10,000 years. Despite protest at local and international levels, San Roque Multi-Purpose Dam was approved in 1998. The dam construction was completed in March and became operational in May 2003.

“If the dams were designed for flood control, then there should have been an alarm system in place or a protocol to warn the agencies and communities of impending disaster. However, the testimonies of the victims and the calamity that has occurred prove that the system was ineffective, if there was any,” Tapang further said.

The proponents of the dam itself should also answer to the millions of victims that were affected by the floods, said Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment.

Earlier, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the National Disaster Coordinating Council blamed Mother Nature, climate change, unprecedented rainfall, squatters, garbage and lack of budget for the disaster that occurred in the past two weeks.

Bautista explained that based on their study on the structural and managerial flaws of San Roque dam, the infrastructure was not really designed for flood control.

”These dams just brought profits for its proponents and did more harm than benefit to the people,” Bautista pointed out.

After San Roque Dam became operational in 2003, 90 percent of Pangasinan were submerged in water in September 2004 and after that local communities frequently experienced flooding whenever there is a typhoon, said Tapang.

Most devastated areas of typhoon Pepeng are Pangasinan and Benguet provinces as these are the areas where the large dams are situated. Pangasinan is the catch basin of water coming from the series of large dams in the Agno River. Massive flooding in Pangasinan is caused and aggravated by the release of voluminous water from these dams, Tapang noted.

The three dams located along the Agno River are the Ambuklao Dam, Binga Dam and San Roque Dam.  The three dams released a maximum of 6,000 cubic meters per second as of October 9 and are still continuing to release water to date, based on NPC report.