Hoax report on dam caused panic
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LINGAYEN–The San Roque Dam can be faulted for being the source or cause of the immense and worst flooding that hit Pangasinan but what it is not, that it is about to collapse or that it has been weakened by the unusual volume of water the past days.
The fact is, the dam is very stable and there is no cause for alarm at anytime.
The San Roque Multi-Purpose Project (SRMP) issued this public advisory on Saturday in the face of the wild rumor that spread that the San Roque Dam had suffered cracks and was about to collapse.
The malicious report, spread via text messages evidently frantically forwarded mindlessly by affected residents within minutes across the province, led to mad panic particularly in communities situated near rivers. The dam-scare spread early Saturday morning.
“Instrumentations are checked on a regular basis and no abnormalities are indicated in any of the readings from the over 100 pieces of dam instrumentation,” SRMP said in its later 4 p.m. Saturday advisory.
Gov. Amado Espino Jr., using the reach of local and national media, constantly allayed fears of residents in eastern Pangasinan.
“That’s not true,” he was heard repeating himself during each media interview whole day Saturday.
TV footages of national TV networks showed people in Rosales, Pangasinan, one of the heavily devastated areas, carrying babies running scared because of the dam-scare.
Espino assured residents that he was getting hourly report from dam officials and there was no indication at anytime that the San Roque dam officials were confronted with the rumored problem.
The provincial information office sent out text messages countering the hoax report, citing the official advisory from the San Roque Power Corporation. The panic situation was finally contained later in the day with the help of mayors in the affected towns.
SPRC’S vice president Tom Valdez ‘ advisory read: This is to assure the public-the San Roque Dam is intact. There is no crack. There will be no dam break. The dam is strong and firm.
Valdez further pointed out that San Roque Dam reservoir water elevation is at 288.60 meters above sea level and only two gates were being opened at two meters each, discharging approximately 700 cubic meters per second over the spillway,” he said.
In a separate phone interview with The PUNCH, Tony Calaycay, community relations officer of the National Power Corporation for San Roque Dam operation under its Flood Forecasting and Warning System for Dam Operations, branded thehoax dam break report as “impossible to happen”.
He cited Ambuklao Dam’s structural stability built 50 years ago that withstood the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in 1990 and compared it to the San Roque Dam that was recently built and notably aided by high-tech engineering.
He added that water from the Ambuklao and Binga Dams can easily contained by San Roque Dam, being the biggest in Asia.
“It (San Roque dam) can contain all that the two dams can hold, and even then, the combined capacity would not reach half of its full capacity that’s how big it is,” he added.
On Saturday 7 a.m., San Roque Dam’s water level was 288.7 meters above sea level with six spillway gates open at one meter high each with a water discharge of 1,500 cubic meters per second only, Calaycay said.
At the height of Typhoon Pepeng Thursday, its biggest discharge was 5,361 cubic meter per second when it reached 289.1 meters above sea level water elevation. #
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