Is it possible that officials of the San Roque Power Corporation that manages the San Roque Multi-Purpose Project don’t really know much about its operations?

This became evident when two of its key officials issued contradicting statements about the direction of water spilled downstream from the dam when the latter’s spillways are opened.   

Tom Valdez, spokesman of SRPC, showed a satellite image showing that there is no way that water being released by the spillways – when the water in the reservoir reaches 280 meters – can flow to central Pangasinan and cause flooding in the area including Dagupan City.

Valdez said the satellite image showed that downstream of the Agno is too  far away from Urdaneta, Sta. Barbara, Calasiao and Dagupan and neither it is near Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija; and Moncada and Paniqui, Tarlac.

Valdez laughed off reports blaming San Roque dam even for the floods in Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and even Bulacan as the Pantabangan dam is nearer these places.

However, Ramon Versa, chief of the controls division of SRPC, did not change his previous position that 20 per cent of the water being released from the spillways in extreme cases goes to  the Agno river through a breach of a five-kilometer dike in barangay San Vicente, San Manuel, that eventually leads to central Pangasinan.

Versa explained this before the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Dagupan City which almost prompted the filing of a class suit by the city government against SRPC.

But Versa said this is no fault of the SRPC but the Department of Public Works and Highways because it did not do anything to restore the damaged dike since it collapsed some years ago.

In contrast, Valdez contends that the water that goes out of the Agno river through the damaged dike does not reach Urdaneta or any part of central part of Pangasinan.

San Manuel is near the Tagamusing river in Binalonan that drains towards the Sinocalan river in Sta. Barbara, Marusay river in Calasiao and Pantal River in Dagupan, and Valdez maintains that water from Agno never reaches Tagamusing river because that is a separate river channel.

With these contradicting statements, no wonder Pangasinenses still don’t understand why their towns continuously get flooded. 

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments